Ever Heard Of Intellectual Fashion? It Spreads Just Like Gucci, Prada, and Peanut Butter

But not all of them take off

I like to think I started the fashion of putting on rugged jeans.

Since most of the people who know me have never seen me put on these types of trousers, they are unlikely to believe it.

Well, this is how it happened.

I was in the lab, trying to create slides for my project. I wanted to investigate the microscopic features of the vein located behind your knee. Luck was hardly considering my valiant efforts.

It was a repeated case of embedding samples in solid wax, running it through a cutting machine, and getting dust instead of clean slices of wax.

Amid my struggles, some of my jeans began to tear. My knees began to show. I didn’t care because I still needed my slides. I ran the cost of not graduating if I didn’t complete my long project.

That evening, as I walked down the staircase, it became apparent the kind of jeans I wore. Rugged and torn. I had never seen anyone with that type of trousers. In a way, I felt self-conscious. A tiny bit.

Most of the first-year students walked by after their dissection session in the anatomy lab. These are likely the people who first saw my designer clothes. With my lilac purple sweater. I was a walking piece of art, with a worn-out face and jeans, straight from failed attempts.

It must have been a Friday because I didn’t change one bit even after heading to my room.

Like a ritual, Friday evenings were meant for relaxation. Sauntering to town, ordering fries, and watching a movie for the night.

Nope, I had no girlfriend. It was me, my stomach, and my problems.

That evening, more eyes glanced at my designer clothes. Plus, it was Friday. Most of the people were out to have a good time. It was then, I think, that people considered rugged jeans.

I must have been the only person. In the next couple of weeks, I started seeing other people put on similar jeans, with a lot more class than mine.

As for me, I threw my pair away. I never liked it. But I can never forget it.

Now, do you agree with me that I started a trend?

New watch alert, Hublot

That’s how trends start.

Usually, clotheslines with massive influence launch a product or style. Models advertise it. People then latch onto it.

Repeat.

Jay Z raps:

Photoshoot fresh,

Looking like wealth,

I’m ‘bout to call the paparazzi on myself

That’s the effect that fashion has. Especially when you know top-notch personalities who brag just as much in the same attire.

The newer the design, the fewer people will have it. Once you get it, you are considered eclectic, unique, different. You’d rather put it on before more people start wearing the same outfit. That is if you aim to stand out from the crowd.

But if you’re like other people, you can’t wait to have a turn.

Kenya is notorious for attempts at mimicking brands.

There’s Puma. Classic. Unquestionable.

But you’ll find a pair of shoes with Pumba, the Lion King warthog instead. Addidas will masquerade as Abidas. Jordans will have MJ laying up the ball rather than dunking. Probably with a tummy sticking out. And people will buy these products because fashion spreads.

Like the broken telephone, with every spread, there’s a high possibility of tweaks. Thus, Puma’s latest release becomes Pumba by the time it gets to Githurai, Kenya.

Two types of people here.

The first is the one who wants to stand out. These are the ones who invented or endorsed the fashion, style, or design. Like Jay Z says:

I invented swag.

Then there are the other types — those who’d want to conform to that type of style. Weather its’ Addidas or Abidas.

One group invests or discovers and another group endorses or embraces the idea.

Independent thinkers and group thinkers.

Snap! I’ve touched a nerve.

Nobody wants to think they are group thinkers. Everybody believes they are independent thinkers. It just so happens that by coincidence, every other person thinks like you. Yes?

But how else would you distinguish independent thinking if it’s not solitary?

Try creating a new style of dressing and I dare you to walk into town with it. Not just for one day, but several days. Chances are people will think you’re mad.

And that’s the point.

It’s how you stand out.

I invented swag

Most independent thinkers are thought to be mad.

Jana Levin has a book where she recounts the life of Alan Turing, the mad genius who founded modern computer science. Often, when your idea is great, you’re not just a genius. You’re a mad genius.

Insanity and genius share outstanding qualities.

Before people endorsed Darwin’s ideas, they thought he was mad. Lord Kelvin, however, another genius respected what he’d published and took it seriously. His calculations invalidated Darwin’s idea only for a while.

What’s important to notice is that Lord Kelvin was another independent thinker. While most people brushed off Darwin’s ideas, he took it seriously. He wasn’t thinking like the group. He was thinking like Lord Kelvin, himself.

Other typical stories describe the lives of Kepler, Boltzmann, and Galileo.

Let me talk about someone who is fairly unrecognized but whose story I like.

Peter. D. Mitchell.

He won the Nobel for discovering the use of the proton pump in mitochondria, the organelles responsible for energy production. He stuck to his guns even when the whole army of chemical scientists thought he was raving mad.

He posited that life was a form of phase-switch between the internal and external environment. Harnessing this up-close environment would sustain life. So a membrane can be made to create a dam filled with hydrogen ions, which when passed through a turbine across the cell membrane, would generate energy.

We all have something similar to the turbines that generate hydroelectric power inside us, existing with the help of the mitochondria.

Energy molecules get formed in this manner. But unlike the turbines in water plants, this pump can work in a bidirectional way, depending on the cell’s energy state. Life, therefore is heavily dependent on the environment.

Phase switches between one energy state to another sustain life as we know it. Peter Mitchell stuck with this story until he was proven to be correct.

He invented swag.

He was thought to be bonkers. But it turned out he was correct. It’s a difficult position to be in. Insanity and independent thinking are brothers. Or sisters. Or cramp twins. Or whichever way you prefer to call them.

These stories hit hard because I understand how they feel.

Why?

I discovered a new theory

Not about rugged jeans.

It’s about evolution.

My theory strongly states that any physical entity has organismal-like behaviour. Atoms, molecules, electrons and there’s more I’ll continue to discuss. Cities are my favourite but I’m yet to write a post about them. They too are organisms, but first, you’d have to see how I define an organism.

My idea of evolution does not discredit what we know from Natural Selection. Think of a Venn diagram. There are parts of Natural Selection captured by my theory. Organismal Selection, however, breaks away from Natural Selection in several ways.

I’ve already mentioned how it focuses on other physical entities. The other aspect I love about the theory is it’s the only theory so far that can explain the very first organism. Natural Selection happens in populations, and the very first organism is hardly a population.

Genetic Drift is the other theory of evolution, but it depends on small samples after several generations. It’s the closest theory we presently have which can attempt to explain the first organism, but it can’t.

Symbiosis needs at least two organisms for it to have any power in describing the first organism. Group selection needs a group. An organism is hardly a group.

Punctuated equilibrium needs species spread out over time. Moments of stasis punctuated with new species in the evolutionary record. The first organism is the only punctuation. No stasis there.

In short, I have a theory that is very different from the other mainstream theories of evolution. But I run the risk of people thinking I’m mad.

An atom, an organism? I must be mad.

But I stick with my story.

I stick with the swag I invented.

As I close…

I leave you with a challenge.

If you think you are also an independent thinker, don’t be like the group thinker.

Be like Lord Kelvin who decided to take someone’s ideas seriously. View ideas independently and make your conclusions, then we can discuss.

Don’t dismiss it just because it’s strange.

We remember the strange, not the common.

I dare you to think differently about it. I put years of work into this. The least you can do is consider thinking about it.

So, are you bold enough to hold differing thoughts?

Or will you dismiss me along with my idea?

Have a look at my swag of an idea, and tell me what you think about it.

PS: You can also subscribe to my other swag of a newsletter. It’s the lightest newsletter on the Internet. That right there is swag.