Identity Construction Through Costumes and Self-Expression

Identity is a costume, allowing self-expression while navigating societal expectations and interpersonal roles.

### The Role of Costumes in Identity and Self-Expression
* 🎭 At Stage 5, individuals learn that **identity is constructed** and that their values serve as **instrumental tools** to create a world aligned with their preferences.
* 🧥 The concept of identity as a "**costume**" suggests that interpersonal interactions can be viewed as **roles that one plays**, allowing for **agency in how one presents themselves**.
* 🌈 Experiences at events like Burning Man illustrate that costumes can transform from mere uniforms to **profound self-expression**, where individuals are free to **showcase their true selves without boundaries**.
* 🔄 The notion of a costume also raises questions about perception; it is shaped by **how others interpret it within various contexts**, making it a **complex projection of identity**.
* 🧩 Understanding that everyone wears a costume can lead to a **deeper appreciation of different identities**, revealing that many perspectives are influenced by **circumstances beyond personal control**.
* ⚡ Costume changes throughout the day reflect not only physical attire but also **shifts in personality**, illustrating how people **adapt their social personas** for different roles.
* 🌌 At Burning Man, costumes facilitate **quicker and more authentic connections**, allowing participants to **express their true selves more openly** than in conventional settings.
* 💻 In the digital realm, exploring various costumes becomes easier, highlighting the **importance of effort in crafting an authentic self-expression** rather than simply opting for convenience.

at Stage 5 you'll discover how identity is constructed, self-offering, realize that your values are not terminal but they are instrumental to achieving a world that you like, in aesthetics that you prefer. Yeah, and the more you understand this, the more you get agency

over how your identity is constructed and you realize that identity and interpersonal interaction is a costume, and you should be able to have agency over that. Question, right? It's useful to Via costume, it tells something to others and it allows to interface in roles, but being locked into this is a big

limitation. The word costume kind of implies that it's fraudulent in some way. Is costume a good word for you, like to present ourselves to the world in some sense? I learned a lot about costumes at Burning Man. Before that, I did not really appreciate costumes and saw them more as

uniforms, like wearing a suit if you are working in a bank, or if you are trying to get startup funding for uh, from a VC in Switzerland, right? Then you dress up in a particular way, and this is mostly to show the other side that you are

willing to play by the rules and you understand what the rules are, but um there is something deeper. When you write Burning Man, your costume becomes self-expression, and there is no boundary to the self-expression. You're basically free to wear what you want to express

other people, what you feel like this day, and uh what kind of interactions you want to have. Is the customer kind of projection of uh, of Who You Are? That's very hard to say because the costume also depends on what other people see in the costume and this

depends on the context that the other people understand and you have to create something if you want to that is legible to the other side and that means something to yourself do we become prisoners of the costume because everybody expects us some people do but um I think that once you realize

that you we are costume at Burning Man a variety of costumes realize that you cannot not wear a costume yeah right basically everything that you wear and present to others is something that is to some degree in addition to what you are deep inside so this stage in

parentheses you put full adult Karma wisdom why is this full adult why would you say this is full and why is it wisdom it does allow you to understand um why other people have different identities from yours and it allows you to understand that the difference

between people who vote for different parties and might have very different opinions and different value systems is often the accident of where they are born and what happened after them after that to them and what traits they got before they were born and at some point

you realize the perspective where you understand that everybody could be you in a different timeline if you just flip those bits how many costumes do you have I don't count but in more than one yeah of course how easy is it to do costume changes throughout the day

it's just a matter of energy and interest when you are wearing your pajamas and you switch out of your pajamas into say a work shirt and pants you're making a costume change right and if you are putting on the gown you're

making a costume change, you could do the same with personality. You could, if that's what you're into, there are people who have multiple personalities for interaction in multiple roles, right? So if somebody works in a store and you put up a storekeeper personality when you're

working, when you're presenting yourself at work, you develop a step personality for this and the social persona for many people is, in some sense, a puppet that they are playing like a marionette. And if they play this all the time, they might forget that there is something

behind this, just something what it feels like to be in your skin. And I guess it's very helpful if you're able to get back into this. And for me, it's the other way around, is relatively hard for me, it's pretty hard to learn how to play

consistent social roles. For me, it's much easier just to be real, or not real, but to have a one costume. No, it's not quite the same. So basically, when you are wearing a costume at Burning Man and say you are an extraterrestrial Prince,

um, there's something where you are expressing, in some sense, something is closer to yourself than the way in which you hide yourself behind a standard closing when you go out in the city in the default world. And so this costume that you're wearing at Burning Man allows you to express

more of yourself and uh you have a shorter distance of advertising to people what kind of person you are, what kind of interaction you would want to have with them. And so you get much earlier into media Express. And I believe it's regrettable that we do not use the

opportunities that we have this custom-made clothing now to wear costumes that are much more stylish, that are much more custom-made, that are not necessarily part of a fashion in which you express which milieu you're part of and how up-to-date you are, but you also

express how you are as an individual and what you want to do today and how you feel today and what you intend to do about it. Well, isn't it easier now with in the digital world to uh to explore different costumes? I mean, that's the kind of idea with virtual

reality, that's the idea even with Twitter in two-dimensional screens, you can you can swap all costumes, you can be as weird as you want. It's easier for Burning Man, you have to like order things, you have to make things, you have to it's more effort to it's better if

you make them yourselves, sure, but it's just easier to do digitally, right? It's not about easy, it's about how to get it right, and for me the first Burning Man experience, I got adopted by a bunch of people in Boston who directed me to Burning Man and we

spent a few weekends doing costumes together and that was an important part of the experience where the camp bonded, that people got to know each other and we basically grew into the experience that we would have later. So the Extraterrestrial Prince is based on a

true story. Yeah. [Music] I can only imagine what that looks like. Yosha.

The self shapes reality: We're all wearing a costume | Joscha Bach and Lex Fridman

Clips from the Lex Fridman podcast. Visit the main channel for full conversations and other videos.

Lex Clips

Identity Construction and Agency at Stage 5

Discovering how identity is constructed and that values are instrumental in achieving desired outcomes.

Identity and interpersonal interaction viewed as a costume; agency over identity is emphasized.

Discussion on the appropriateness of the term 'costume' and its implications.

Costumes as a means of showing willingness to play by societal rules.

Costumes at Burning Man: Self-Expression and Interaction

Burning Man costumes as a form of unrestrained self-expression.

Costumes as a projection of self, influenced by others' perceptions and context.

The potential for becoming prisoners of costumes due to societal expectations.

The inevitability of wearing a costume, representing various aspects of oneself.

Understanding Diverse Identities and Perspectives

Understanding the diverse identities of others and the influence of birth and upbringing.

Recognizing the possibility of different timelines and perspectives.

Discussion on the frequency of costume changes throughout the day.

Everyday actions as costume changes, extending to personality shifts.

Developing specific personalities for different roles and the potential for losing touch with one's true self.

Personal experience with maintaining consistent social roles versus authenticity.

Burning Man costumes as a means of expressing a truer self compared to everyday attire.

The potential for more stylish and personalized costumes beyond current fashion trends.

The ease of exploring different costumes in the digital world versus the physical effort of Burning Man.

The importance of the collaborative costume-making process at Burning Man.