Silent majority is probably right. There's a self selection pressure for the survivor bias. I found EA at probably the worst financial time in my life and it only worsened my perception of my financial stress, philosophical it's lead to great personal growth, but it's taken a mental health toll.

Thank you for that flashback to my childhood ←(>▽<)ﾉ I was obsessed with WA through middle school and completely forgot about this gem.

Depending on the situation, I would disagree with the 'it's their problem' attitude. I think pushing the boundary is fine and other people should be the ones to be more tolerant of the yet-to-be-normalised things, but that doesn't discount the fact that it would make it hard to get your foot in the door in the first place. I think after you've gained some foothold, then pushing the boundary has more impact.

For example, I'm a bearded guy, but in order to get a job in Japan, I shaved it off (to my complete discomfort), and after a month or two I asked my boss if I could grow it back over our summer break. Had I not shaved, maybe my job prospects would have been worse and I would not have had the opportunity to open my colleagues' minds.

Pick away, I appreciate the engagement! It's interesting to hear what this prompts from you. Orthoganality is a curious thing, and I would hope to get better at such things because one insecurity I had while writing this piece was that I don't want to be so 'Black Mirror'esque as to be 'following the zeitgeist'; this was a thought experiment of my own that isn't supposed to be technodisasterist, rather a cautionary tale. 

Although I read a book in Japanese about Zen (Zen and Star Wars), I never internalised the idea of ko-an (a new word for me), so thank you for that.