I have a billionaire friend that I talk about this topic with often. We call it the wizard staff. You plant the wizard staff in the ground and watch reality bend around you. Or I have another mental model called the cardboard mall. Imagine a mall full of cardboard cutout people, who are only as real as you allow them to be. At any point in time you can simply decide to run through the mall at a full sprint knocking down every cardboard person in your way. The cutouts jeer at you. They make mean faces and murmur about you. They’re not pleased to be knocked down, but in the end they’re made of cardboard and there’s nothing they can do to stop you.

That's really powerful imagery! The cardboard mall is incredibly disturbing, but... yeah... oddly accurate. I guess the cardboard cutouts are analog to the concept of NPCs. Why are people non-playable characters? Because you can't activate them to accomplish something. They're like part of the scenery.

"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man."

Only gay losers mute people. Sorry @🇵🇸 whoever loves Digit, I can't be bothered to do more.