Some of you are probably familiar with Johnny Sins, as he is rather prominent in a particular kind of movie genre. This is what he looks like:

He’s a pretty buff dude. According to some online source, his stats are 174 lbs (78.9 kg) at 6′ (183 cm). By any means, this is a fantastic physique. Johnny Sins claims he is a natural bodybuilder who only uses protein supplements, and fat burners before a shoot.

I would say that that guy has a top 1% level physique. Yet, you will easily find people online who bitch about him, claiming that he “isn’t all that big”, which is roughly at the same level as the “do you even lift?” meme. The link I shared with you is from a forum dedicated to body building. I would bet money that most if not all the people who made negative posts in that thread have a physique that is nowhere near as good as Johnny Sin’s. Yet, in their mind they look like Schwarzenegger in his prime.

Similar patterns apply elsewhere. In the days of yore, virgins on pickup forums were imagining a future in which they would bang 80 women a year, and ridiculing guys who needed a bit more effort to get laid. On careers forums, undergrads without any job experience dismiss stable, yet unglamorous careers. On expat forums wannabe-expats whine about country X, where they grew up in, imagining paradisiacal circumstances in country Y. Meanwhile, other wannabe-expats in Y whine about their country and want to move to X. It’s quite mind-boggling.

In general, the rule of thumb is that if you have no experience, you better work on getting some (no pun intended). If you don’t get laid, don’t even bother debating others who actually do. If you yet have to draw your first paycheck, then maybe focus on getting to that point first, and so on, and so forth. Yet, sadly, this doesn’t seem to be how the majority of people operate. Instead, they live fantasy lives that have nothing to do with their oftentimes rather limited but real existence. It’s quite sad if you think about it.