I recently finished listening to The Wisdom of Life by Arthur Schopenhauer on Audible (free eBook here). Schopenhauer is widely known as the ‘philosopher of pessimism’, as he often presents a worldview that challenges the value of human existence. This book is a collection of his essays, of which one concept stood out to me: that of fame, and how futile it is. Schopenhauer writes:

Would a musician feel flattered by the loud applause of an audience if he knew that they were nearly all deaf, and that, to conceal their infirmity, they set to work to clap vigorously as soon as ever they saw one or two persons applauding? And what would he say if he got to know that those one or two persons had often taken bribes to secure the loudest applause for the poorest player!

What I take this to mean is that fame is overrated. The decision to care about what others think is irrational and if we truly knew how little other people thought of us, we would give them much less power over us. If those who anxiously count the likes on their posts knew how little their audience cared, they would be embarrassed. Did I mention Schopenhauer was pessimistic?

Yet, this isn’t to say one should look the world and yell, “screw it, you don’t care about me so I’m not going to do anything!” It is wonderful that people actively cultivate and share their insights with others, for there is so much to discover in the world. Furthermore, though Schopenhauer might disagree, I’m sure there are some consumers of content who deeply appreciate what’s being shared. Indeed, I have personally had my life turned around by blog posts and books, and have had days brightened up by a simple photo.

But what Schopenhauer begs of people is to avoid the temptation to be get caught up in vanity metrics, since, well, people generally don’t care that much. And while this sounds sad, this notion of discrediting fame is really quite liberating – for the weight of human judgment is great, and to be freed from this is a great achievement.