“Don’t Follow the Flow”? Spare Me Your Dead Fish Philosophy

“Don’t Follow the Flow”? Spare Me Your Dead Fish Philosophy #

Stop. Just stop. Another LinkedIn guru posts this tired cliché—"Only dead fish go with the flow!“—as if they’ve cracked the code to human greatness. They frame it as rebellion, as wisdom, as a call to arms against mediocrity. It’s not. It’s lazy, arrogant nonsense peddled by people who’ve never fought a current in their lives.

First, biology check: Actual living fish follow flows daily. Salmon battle currents to spawn. Tuna ride ocean streams to hunt. Even goldfish circle thoughtfully in their bowls. The only fish drifting mindlessly? The dead ones. So congratulations—your mantra isn’t profound; it’s a literal description of carcasses. Want life advice from floating rot? Be my guest.

But the real insult? The hypocrisy. The same blowhards barking "don’t follow the flow!” are obsessed with trends. They chase viral algorithms, mimic thought leaders, and regurgitate buzzwords like “disrupt” and “innovate” on cue. Their entire brand is performance art conformity, wrapped in a faux-rebel bumper sticker. They’re not swimming against the current—they’re polluting it with platitudes.

Worse? This mantra dismisses everyone actually fighting real currents. The single parent working three jobs? The refugee learning a new language? The activist facing systemic inertia? They’re not “dead fish"—they’re navigating brutal tides with grit this guru couldn’t fathom. Yet Captain Deep Quote, sipping artisanal coffee in a co-working space, implies their struggle is weakness. The audacity.

True strength isn’t rejecting every current—it’s knowing when to swim with purpose, when to rest in an eddy, and when to fight upstream. It’s strategy, not slogans. Blind contrarianism is just another kind of conformity: the conformity of always saying "no.”

So next time some self-appointed oracle croaks about dead fish, ask:

Where’s YOUR river?

What tides have YOU conquered?

Or are you just floating on privilege, scolding others for not drowning on command?

Put the bumper sticker away. Real life isn’t a motivational poster. And the only thing deader than fish going with the flow? Your recycled, shallow, flowery nonsense. Dive deeper—or get out of the water.

Farizal.com