"Avoid using cigarettes, alcohol, and drugs as alternatives to being an interesting person"
About this Quote
A neat little slap disguised as self-help, Marilyn vos Savant’s line lands because it refuses to moralize in the usual way. She doesn’t warn that cigarettes or alcohol will kill you, or that drugs will ruin your career. She implies something more socially cutting: that these habits often function as personality prosthetics. The real target isn’t intoxication; it’s the performance of a life.
The intent is corrective and a bit elitist in the good sense: raise your standards for what counts as “interesting.” The phrase “alternatives to being an interesting person” reframes substances as shortcuts, a kind of borrowed aura. In a single move, she punctures the romantic myth of the smoky genius and the tortured artist, the idea that a vice can substitute for curiosity, charm, risk, or actual stories. If you need a cigarette to look cool, or a drink to be tolerable, she suggests the problem isn’t sobriety. It’s thin social material.
The subtext is about agency. Substances are portrayed as external tools people lean on to manage boredom, anxiety, awkwardness, or self-image. Calling that an “alternative” exposes the trade: you get a quick vibe at the cost of developing real texture - taste, skill, humor, a point of view.
Context matters: vos Savant is associated with intelligence as public spectacle (the “highest IQ” celebrity, the advice columnist). She’s speaking from a culture that sells edge and authenticity while mass-producing loneliness. Her line works because it’s not a sermon; it’s a dare.
The intent is corrective and a bit elitist in the good sense: raise your standards for what counts as “interesting.” The phrase “alternatives to being an interesting person” reframes substances as shortcuts, a kind of borrowed aura. In a single move, she punctures the romantic myth of the smoky genius and the tortured artist, the idea that a vice can substitute for curiosity, charm, risk, or actual stories. If you need a cigarette to look cool, or a drink to be tolerable, she suggests the problem isn’t sobriety. It’s thin social material.
The subtext is about agency. Substances are portrayed as external tools people lean on to manage boredom, anxiety, awkwardness, or self-image. Calling that an “alternative” exposes the trade: you get a quick vibe at the cost of developing real texture - taste, skill, humor, a point of view.
Context matters: vos Savant is associated with intelligence as public spectacle (the “highest IQ” celebrity, the advice columnist). She’s speaking from a culture that sells edge and authenticity while mass-producing loneliness. Her line works because it’s not a sermon; it’s a dare.
Quote Details
| Topic | Health |
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