My stages of learning to be a socially normal person

Related: "just be yourself" is horrible advice, on its own, to give a young person. It must be accompanied by an understanding that there is a social game to learn to play, and that "being yourself" is not always compatible with playing the game well.

Right with you there! All this discourse about 'being you', be anyone you want to be, 'you do you' etc – christ, no! Not unless you understand the downsides to all of that. And they aren't trivial.

People should not dish out that advice so carelessly and wantenly.