‘It says… no tresspassing?’

There are no runes on the clam. The runes are in your eyes.

The most pernicious self-deception is that things are as they appear to be. The second is that they should be.

Then let me take a crack at it. You are subtly moralizing against their lives as going ‘nowhere,’ suggesting that there is a ‘somewhere’ to go, that would be better than having remained. The reality is you are also on the treadmill, and cannot leave it. You have run faster than it has turned under you, and feel like moving closer to the front of the belt has given your life meaning, just as they have continued to run with their family and friends in a familiar constellation around them and taken meaning from that, but your fate, just like theirs, is to fall and be thrown off the back of the treadmill with everyone else.

Perhaps among those who saw him playing basketball at a top level, there were some who cared anough about the game to take note of his approach, but if you went out and asked 10,000 random humans, ‘do you know who Kobe Bryant is?’ and ‘What is he known for?’ approximately zero who say yes to the first part are going to answer the second part with anything about his personality. Even people who are almost precisely famous because of their outlook, like motivational speakers, are still better known as speakers than for their particular outlook.

I don’t think I have ever heard of anyone who knew Kobe because he ‘embodied values.’ He played basketball well enough to be one of the top players. No one has ever mentioned him for any other reason.