"The bullfrog puffs out its chest, not because it believes it’s mighty, but because if it doesn’t, it’ll be trampled or eaten. That's culture. That’s career. That’s social media. That’s the Nobel Prize. And when people stop puffing—whether from depression, illness, or just unflinching clarity—they become disposable in a system that only tolerates the theatrics of aliveness.

The dominant metaphors, the techno-bureaucratic mythos, the happy lies—yes, all of that is foundationally brittle and yet defended like holy relics because they must be. Otherwise, we risk acknowledging that most of our lives are spent trying to forget".