Author Peter McAllister wrote a book called Manthropology: The Science of Why the Modern Male Is Not the Man He Used to Be. It’s a fact-based, humorous look at why modern men are inferior to their historical counterparts in almost every way possible.

Crispin Andrews talked to Peter McAllister to find out just who could beat whom in today’s sports scene. Here’s what he found out:

10Usain Bolt vs. Ancient Australians

Usain Bolt ran 100 meters (328 ft) in 9.69 seconds to break the world record at the Beijing Olympics. That’s 42 kilometers per hour (26 mph) for the world’s fastest man. But 20,000-year-old fossilized tracks from Australia show that, back then, ordinary people could manage 37 kilometers per hour (23 mph)—running in soft mud, barefoot. With spikes, a running track, and training, they’d have managed speeds of up to 45 kilometers per hour (28 mph).

These ancient Aussies had long limbs and robust leg bones that were 40 percent denser and stronger than those of modern humans. Being nomadic hunters who had to catch their own food, they had a need for speed. Kangaroos and emus were no slouches when running for their lives. Fossilized footprints are extremely rare, and the ones discovered are unlikely to have been left by prehistoric Australia’s fastest runner. The average modern human can run 24 kilometers per hour (15 mph), which is 18 kilometers per hour (11 mph) slower than Bolt. Let’s say that the ancient tracks were left by a runner of average speed. The Pleistocene Aussie equivalent of Usain Bolt would have reached speeds of 63 kilometers per hour (39 mph).

9Samuel Wanjiru vs. Native Americans

Kenyan runner Samuel Wanjiru broke the Olympic marathon record in Beijing in 2008, when he ran it in 2 hours, 6 minutes, and 32 seconds. Had a Mojave Native American from the late 19th century been in the field, Wanjiru would have most definitely been celebrating silver. Back then, the Mojave played a game called kickball. They’d run through the desert all day along the Colorado River, kicking a wooden ball in front of them.

By playing this game, an average Mojave expended 17,000 calories of effort in a single day, almost twice the amount lost by riders in the Tour de France. One Mojave man is said to have run 322 kilometers (200 mi) in 24 hours. Greek athlete Yiannis Kouros holds the world record for 24-hour running. In 1997, he managed only 304 kilometers (189 mi)—and he was running in spikes, on a track, and didn’t have to watch out for wolves and rattlesnakes.

8Kerri Walsh Jennings vs. Pleistocene Aborigines

The Pleistocene Aborigines would have also made great volleyball players. And not just for their Usain Bolt–like speed or their gangly physique that basketball players and fast cricket bowlers would have loved. No, these prehistoric Aussies would have had yet another advantage in a game of volleyball: long arms. On average, they had an extra 10 centimeters (4 in) at the wrist.

For a volleyball player, like Kerri Walsh Jennings, long arms are a must. Serve underhand, and those long arms create more speed to propel the ball over the net with power, accuracy, and grace. Longer arms place more force on the server’s elbow and shoulder joints. More force on the joints transfers to a faster serve. Serve overhand, and long arms produce faster speed, which reduces the amount of time the ball spends in the air. Long arms also mean a longer reach, which is crucial for returning opposition serves.

7Olympic Rowers vs. Athenian Oarsmen

If you think today’s Olympic rowers are the best there have ever been, think again. Olympic rowers might be able to move their boats through the water quicker than any previous Olympians. But 2,500 years ago, oarsmen who could beat any modern-day rower were a dime a dozen. In 427 B.C., an Athenian warship, called a “trireme,” managed the 340-kilometer (211 mi) voyage to Lesbos in 24 hours. When modern-day rowers had a go in a reconstructed trireme, they could only manage that speed for a few seconds. Over distance, their top speed was 9 kilometers per hour (5.6 mph).

According to one ancient writer, even a moderate Athenian crew could top that. At that time, Athens had 200 triremes and 34,000 oarsmen. After measuring their metabolic rates, scientists concluded that sustained speeds of 14 kilometers per hour (8.7 mph) were beyond the aerobic capacity of modern-day rowers. Athenian rowers, they deduced, must have had a greater built-in capacity for aerobic exercise.

6Wladimir Klitschko vs. Australopithecus

Wladimir Klitschko might look pretty mean—and he certainly is—but the multi-time world heavyweight boxing champion would have come out second best to our earliest ancestor. And that’s despite the fact that the tiny Australopithecus was, on average, a whole 60 centimeters (2’0″) shorter than Klitschko. It’s all about punch force. Chimpanzees have similar physiology to Australopithecus, and they have four times as much muscle strength as humans. They are known to deadlift 272 kilograms (600 lb), and one female chimp has been recorded pulling 572 kilograms (1,261 lb) with one hand. Get into the boxing ring with a chimp, and the chimp wouldn’t need to knock you out; it would just throw you over the top rope. Australopithecus were fast and agile, too. They would have gotten their best shots in while Marciano and Klitschko, lumbering heavyweights by comparison, staggered to defeat.

5Jan Zelezny vs. Ancient Greeks

Matthias de Zordo might sound like a B movie villain from the ’60s, but the 24-year-old German is, in fact, the former world javelin champion. Although his 86.27-meter (283 ft) throw was way short of Jan Zelezny’s 1996 world record of 98.48 meters (323.1 ft). But not even the great Czech, Zelezny, could have matched the ancient Greeks when it came to javelin throwing. The earliest Olympic champions threw over 150 meters (492 ft). Although, to be fair to their modern-day successors, they did use lighter javelins and had a leather throwing thong that added an extra 10–25 percent to the throw.

In the early 19th century, Australian aboriginal men of the Dalleburra tribe could throw their hardwood spears 110 meters (361 ft), unaided. British sports educator, Lieutenant Colonel F. A. M. Webster—himself a national championship–winning javelin thrower—reported that in the early 1900s, Turkana men of East Africa regularly outthrew him by meters using their traditional spears.

4Viktor Ruban vs. Mongol Archers

To win gold in Beijing, Ukrainian archer Viktor Ruban shot five of his 12 arrows into the bull’s-eye. And that’s from 70 meters (230 ft). Back when archery meant life or death, Genghis Khan’s warriors could hit a tiny red flag at 150 meters (492 ft). One of the Mongol horde’s best bowmen brought down a flying duck with a single arrow through its neck. Another is said to have been able to hit a target 536 meters (1,759 ft) away.

Carib archers of the 17th century could hit an English half crown coin at 76 meters (250 ft). Today, an average Olympic archer trains 40 hours a week. Mongol archers trained for 80 hours. They started at two years of age. It takes 10,000 hours of practice to reach elite level. By the time they turned 17, Mongol archers would have been practicing for 64,000 hours. Modern Olympic archers use high-tech, carbon-fiber recurve bows with sights and stabilizing weights. Mongol archers learned to shoot on horseback.

3Ilya Ilyin vs. Neanderthals

Kazakhstan isn’t just famous for inspiring British comedians to dress in dodgy green speedos and sing strange songs about potassium. Kazakh weightlifters are pretty good, too. Ilya Ilyin won gold in the 2014 World Championships. But no way would he have beaten a Neanderthal. With 20 percent more muscle mass than modern humans, male Neanderthals were 126–138 percent stronger than we are. Ilyin lifted 242 kilograms (534 lb) in the “clean and jerk.” His combined total was 432 kilograms (952 lb). With the same training, the strongest Neanderthal would have managed 309 kilograms (681 lb) and 554 kilograms (1,221 lb), respectively.

In the women’s competition, China’s Zhou Lulu broke the 75-kilogram (165 lb) world record with a combined score of 328 kilograms (723 lb). The strongest female Neanderthal would have lifted 475 kilograms (1,047 lb), beating the current world record in the heaviest men’s class. Neanderthal women were 145 percent stronger than today’s ladies and had 10 percent more body mass than the average European man. They had shorter arms, so they could have lifted even more.

2Javier Castellano vs. Mongol Riders

Javier Castellano has earned more money than any other jockey in 2014—over $25 million. In 2013, the Venezuelan earned over $26 million. Genghis Khan’s Mongol warriors didn’t earn that much, but they could have beaten any of today’s jockeys in a straight race. For the nomadic people who lived on the Mongolian steppes back then, riding was like walking. A fully fledged warrior could ride 130 kilometers (81 mi) in a single day, traveling over mountains and deserts. Genghis Khan used the riders to send messages around his empire. When his grandson, Khublai Khan, lost favor with the nomads, the Mongols lost their empire.

1Javier Sotomayor vs. Tutsi Men

High jumper Javier Sotomayor managed to clear a world record of 2.45 meters (8’0″) in 1993—pretty good for back then and too good for the world’s best since. But Sotomayor’s jump was nothing compared to the heights Rwandan Tutsi men were jumping daily during the 19th century. Olympic high jumpers battle for personal glory and team success. For the Tutsi, high jumping was more important than that.

In their culture, you were only considered a real man if you could jump your own height. And many of these guys were tall enough to make NBA scouts drool. Frequently, Tutsis jumped over 2 meters (6’7″). One is said to have managed 2.52 meters (8’3″)—and that’s without any training or technique coaching. Teach him the Fosbury Flop—the midair wiggle that’s supposed to add extra height to a jump—and he’d have managed over 3 meters (9’10”).

Crispin Andrews is a freelance writer from England. He writes about science, technology, popular culture history, sports, and the unexplained.

When there was no effect treatment for most infectious diseases in the past, the best advice that medical minds could give you was the Latin phrase Cito, longe, tarde (“Leave quickly, go far away, and come back slowly”).

Fleeing a plague and sitting it out in the countryside was one of the only things most people could do. Of course, they often spread the plague to the “safe” places to which they ran. So even this had only limited success.

With everyone around them succumbing to mysterious illnesses, the people of the past had nothing to lose by trying what seem like ridiculous tactics to us. Here are 10 historic ways that people tried to beat plagues.

Top 10 Worst Plagues In History

10 Smells

Miasma theory, which suggested that illness was caused by bad air and odors, placed a great deal of faith in the power of smells to prevent illness. It was believed that removing bad smells was one way to stop disease. In 1357, the city of London threatened people with fines if they left any offensively smelly animal products or dung in the streets.

For those unable to make their environment less odoriferous, there was the option of using perfume and other sweet smells to mask the stench. However, one group of people is said to have invented a cure for the plague for less than wholesome reasons.

Four Thieves Vinegar (aka Marseilles Vinegar) was a concoction of vinegar, herbs, spices, and garlic whose strong smell was thought to prevent the plague. The recipe for this mixture was supposed to have been created by a group of four thieves who wanted to break into houses where people had died of the plague without catching it themselves. When apprehended, the thieves surrendered their secret formula to avoid being hanged.^[1]

9 Masks

Some individuals used smells to save themselves for more noble reasons than theft. Medieval doctors who dealt with plague victims were often shown wearing extraordinary beaked masks. Although they look absurd to us, they were the high-tech hazmat suits of the Middle Ages.

Doctors in their plague gear wore waxed aprons to stop blood and other bodily fluids from soaking into their clothes. Leather gloves kept them from coming into contact with their patients directly. Polished slices of crystal in their masks allowed them to see clearly but kept droplets of infectious material from reaching their eyes.

However, from the physician’s point of view, the most effective piece of kit was the beaked mask. Not knowing how diseases spread, they thought the putrid aromas of the sick actually caused illness.

So, the beaked mask was stuffed with pungent herbs and spices to purify the air they breathed. Some doctors went further by holding garlic in their mouths while examining the dying.^[2]

8 Fires

When personal protection was not enough, city authorities sought to drive out diseases by changing the air of the entire city. One of the best ways to do this was to light enormous bonfires whose heat and smoke was thought to clean the air.

When the Great Plague of 1665 hit London, an order went out from the Lord Mayor that all inhabitants of the city were to “furnish themselves with sufficient quantities . . . of combustible matter to maintain and continue fire burning constantly for three whole days and nights.” The given reason was that this had worked in the past and in other countries.

For three days, the streets were kept empty except for people tending fires and watching that sparks did not ignite nearby houses. The diarist Samuel Pepys saw fires burning throughout the whole city. Alas, they did not work in stopping people from dying by the thousands.^[3]

For a time, smoking was thought to be good for your health. After all, what could be healthier than carrying a tiny bonfire of tobacco around with you in your pipe?

7 Kill Cats

During the Great Plague, the city authorities of London also declared that there should be a culling of cats and dogs. Unfortunately, this plague was spread by rats and fleas. Without cats and dogs to keep the rat population down, it is sometimes thought that this measure helped to prolong the length of the plague.

Cats have always had it hard in times of crisis. Until the 18th century, it was a common entertainment in France to gather cats in a net or cage and hoist them over a fire to watch them burn to death. The animals’ ashes were thought to be a powerful protection against witchcraft and the cause of good luck.

There may have been some use in getting rid of cats, however. As they can carry fleas and spend a lot of time around humans, they may well have been carriers of the Black Death after all.^[4]

6 Bloodletting

Bleeding patients has been a favorite pastime of doctors for millennia. The ancient doctor Galen, who shaped medical practice for centuries, was such a fan of bloodletting that his fellow doctors mocked him for it. Once, after Galen tried to bleed a fever out of a patient, there was so much blood on the floor that they said, “You really slaughtered that fever.”

Later, doctors thought themselves much more sophisticated that Galen. Rather than simply cutting up patients and letting the blood pour out, they attached leeches to the body to suck out the blood.

Leeches were collected by individuals (usually women) wading into the water where the critters lived. The leech finders had bare legs and simply waited for the bloodsuckers to attach themselves. These leeches were then sold for a high price. Leeches were a relatively painless and risk-free way of getting some of your blood out.^[5]

Today, if you feel your humors are out of balance, most modern doctors would suggest trying something other than bleeding. On the other hand, leeches have made a comeback in certain medical uses.

10 Weird Epidemics That Remain A Mystery

5 Quarantine

One of the fastest ways for diseases to spread in the Middle Ages was on ships. People were crammed together in close and unhealthy quarters. This made these vessels the perfect breeding grounds for diseases.

Once sailors and passengers went ashore, a plague could soon spring up. This relationship between ships and disease was soon noticed, and the city of Venice took measures to stop it.

Starting in 1448, when a ship reached the city, it was forced to wait at anchor for 40 days before the crew and goods could leave the vessel. This period of 40 days gives us the word “quarantine” today.^[6] Forty is also a biblical number related to purity as when Jesus went into the desert for 40 days.

Despite being a number plucked from the Bible, the Venetians seem to have struck it lucky. Modern medicine suggests that most people suffering from the bubonic plague go from infection to death in around 37 days.

4 Cordon Sanitaire

Sometimes, it was an entire empire that took action to keep plague out. In 1770, Empress Maria Theresa of Austria set up a cordon sanitaire between her lands and those of the Ottoman Empire. This sanitary cordon sought to keep the plague out of Austria—and it worked.

The border lasted for 101 years. During that time, there were no outbreaks of plague in Austria, although they continued to occur within the Ottoman Empire.

Over a stretch of land spanning 1,600 kilometers (1,000 mi), soldiers were posted within a musket shot of each other. Along this border, people and goods could only pass at designated areas and were held there to check for signs of plague.^[7]

People were monitored for 21 days unless a plague was active on the Ottoman side of the border. In that case, they were held for 48 days. To check that fabrics and wool were not infected, they were placed in a warehouse where peasants were given money to sleep on top of them. If the peasants remained healthy, then the goods were clean.

3 Whipping Yourself

In the ancient world, it was thought that plagues were caused by Apollo shooting people down with his invisible arrows. Indeed, it must have seemed as if some divine force was randomly afflicting only certain individuals as a plague spread.

In the Middle Ages, however, it was not Apollo who was spreading disease. Instead, the Christian God was punishing people for their sins.

Flagellants were people who thought the best way to rid themselves of sin was to punish their sinful bodies. Across Europe, large groups of people gathered together to whip themselves.

In 1349, they arrived in London and put on quite the show of purification:

Each had in his right hand a scourge with three tails. Each tail had a knot, and through the middle of it, there were sometimes sharp nails fixed. They marched naked in a file, one behind the other, and whipped themselves with these scourges on their naked and bleeding bodies.^[8]

That same year, however, Pope Clement VI issued a Papal Bull against the flagellants. They were taking the Church’s right to forgive their sins into their own hands. Also, having large groups of people assemble and spray blood around open wounds was a good way of spreading disease.

2 Mercury, Unicorns, And Goat Stones

The placebo effect is amazing. If you tell people that you are giving them a medicine to treat their condition, they often report that they feel better even if the substance contains no active ingredient. In fact, if you tell them that the medication is rare or costly, the effect becomes even stronger. Belief in a medicine is a powerful part of its potency.

Early doctors may have unwittingly taken advantage of this when they prescribed exotic concoctions for their patients. In the ancient world, spices from distant lands were prized for their medicinal powers. In the 17th century, expensive drugs were still favored by those who could afford them.^[9]

Mercury, the only liquid metal at room temperature, was used by those amazed by its quicksilver properties. Others made much of crushed-up “unicorn horns”—probably the long, hornlike teeth of the narwhal.

However, one doctor thought those were nonsense cures. He found that a little bit of bezoar (a stone found in the stomachs of goats and other animals) was just the thing for the plague.

1 Live Chickens

In the 17th century, one of the cures available to the doctor who liked bezoars involved snake flesh. It was used to make small lozenges that dissolved in the mouth. For these, he suggested rattlesnakes as the best source. But sometimes, it was live animal flesh that did the trick.

The Black Death marked its patients with the formation of hugely swollen lymph nodes that turned black—hence its name. These buboes were exquisitely painful to the touch and a natural place for doctors to try out their cures. To heal the buboes, one Austrian doctor of 1494 offered a solution:

Take some young roosters, one after the other, with the feathers plucked from around the hole in the backside. Place the rooster’s rump on the bubo until the rooster dies. Repeat with another rooster until one survives.^[10]

How the rooster was held in place until it died is not described. The treatment was used for many centuries and seems to have developed from an Arabic treatment for sucking venom from bites. In that case, a chicken was cut just above its heart and the wound placed over the bite.

Top 10 Deadly Pandemics Of The Past

Most people have been told to “go with the flow” and “don’t rock the boat” their whole lives, but that advice isn’t always appropriate. History has shown that change is often brought about by the people who stand out and are abnormal—those who march to the beat of their own drum.

As it happens, being abnormal is a good thing. This list looks at how being abnormal can make your life better. It turns out you shouldn’t be like everyone else if you want to live a happier and more fulfilling life.

10 Tips for Success in Everything

10 Nonconformity Lets You “Be Yourself”

Our whole lives, we’re told to fit in and conform to the group — to not be different or stand out from the crowd. In some cases, this is good advice. Still, it has one major flaw: it prevents you from being yourself, and YOU are an individual who deserves to stand out for the things that make you different.

Nonconformity isn’t easy because the group mentality always pushes back against it, but that doesn’t make it wrong. The people who stand out as different tend to stand out in positive ways. Think of how Stefani Germanotta’s career flourished after she stopped conforming to the cookie-cutter standards of the music industry by spreading her wings to be who she truly is: Lady Gaga.

People have been standing out for all of history in this manner. A lot of them have enjoyed the benefits of expressing themselves for who they are. When someone has to hide the things that make them different (for fear of bullying or cancellation), they deny their individuality, which can be dangerous for their self-esteem and mental health—and dangerous for society!

Be who you are, even if that means you won’t be like everyone else. At the end of the day, that’s a good thing. You are a unique person, and everything that makes you who you are is special. Embrace that, and you will enjoy your friends, your family, your work, and your life in a much more enriching way than you have before.^[1]

9 Abnormality & Leadership Go Hand-In-Hand

If you think about the type of people who take leadership roles within a given group, they probably stand out as somewhat abnormal. Leadership is all about putting the group’s interest above your own, and that’s an antithetical viewpoint for most people.

The U.S. Army has a saying, “Lead from the front,” which essentially boils down to putting yourself in the line of fire to protect your Soldiers. Lead by example and ensure your Troops’ welfare is taken care of before your own are common phrases in the military. Still, not everyone can become a great leader.

It takes an exceptional person, or someone others may call “abnormal,” to become an outstanding leader. History is filled with inimitable leaders like General Saint Joan of Arc, George S. Patton, Gustavus Adolphus, Frederick II of Prussia, and many more. Every one of them stood apart from the rest and are remembered as brilliant leaders.

Of course, leadership doesn’t begin and end in the military. There are plenty of CEOs, politicians, managers, and people in other positions of leadership who stand out for being both abnormal and for being outstanding leaders. Odds are, you’ve worked with or for someone who fits that description at least once in your life.^[2]

8 You Can’t Replace Abnormality

When it comes to working within a group, being abnormal can bring job security. Suppose everyone within a group is the same. In that case, everyone in the group is easily replaceable with someone who shares those same traits. That’s not true of the person who stands out as being different.

If you spend your time going through the motions of your job without making any attempt to stand out, then you’re not someone the management necessarily wants to keep around. A great example of this comes from an unlikely source in the movie Office Space.

In the film, the main character stops conforming (and doing his job), but instead of being terminated, he’s promoted. Now, that movie isn’t grounded in reality. Still, it does show how nonconformity and an embrace of abnormality help an employee stand out.

If you are unique in your job, then you aren’t easily replaceable. You ensure job security and will likely improve your chances for promotion, so it’s always better to NOT be a cog in the machine. Stand out and stand up! Ensure people know just how abnormal you are and why your uniqueness makes you an asset to the organization.^[3]

7 Abnormal People Are Successful People

The word “abnormal” has some negative connotations. Still, if you think about the most successful people in the world, they are often abnormal in some way. Think of innovators like Elon Musk or entertainers like Cher and Elton John; every one of them is different in their own unique way, and they’re all successful.

Success for abnormalities isn’t limited to superstars and billionaires either. Thanks to sites like Bitchute (the free speech alternative to YouTube) and others, everyone has a platform that allows them to succeed because of what makes them different.

One of the best examples of this is Jeffree Star, who gained fame on the internet by being extremely different. His Youtube channel lets him show off what makes him different. He’s acquired a massive number of followers and succeeded in side-business ventures that wouldn’t have been possible had he not expressed himself as extremely different from others.

Star is now a millionaire, but had he not found an outlet to express himself, he wouldn’t have been able to stand out. Most people seek entertainment from people who don’t follow the rules, which can prove fruitful in and out of the entertainment industry. As a side note, unfortunately Mr Star made comments a decade ago that some people now consider were “racist” and while he has apologised publicly he may be next on the cancel-culture chopping board.^[4]

6 Abnormal People Walk Their Own Path

Being abnormal typically means that a person doesn’t do the same things everyone else does. This leads to breaking the norms of society, which can be good or bad, depending on the situation. If you stand out for being different, there’s a good chance you won’t do the same things other people do.

An article in Forbes titled, “Being the Odd One Out—Survival Tips to Being Different” explains this rather well:

“The mega-successful don’t play by the rules. They don’t conform to all of society’s norms. They don’t follow what everyone else is doing. They do their own things –- in their own ways. They make decisions that work for them. They set goals for where they want to go. They think out of the box firstly because they aren’t standard issue, and can’t fit into the regular packaging… but mostly because they like to.”^[5]

These traits tend to lead to success. Instead of going out every Friday night, you might be at home researching or working through a problem. You walk a different path, and when you do so according to your abnormality, you might just find yourself succeeding while the “pack” is left behind.

5 Abnormal People Are Often Emulated

When everyone within a group is the same, there is little room to grow. If someone transcends the group to stand out, it can lead to progress and evolution, but it can also lead to emulation. When an individual stands out for being different, their abnormal traits are often copied by the people in the group.

There’s a reason so many people have read Jordan Peterson’s 12 Rules For Life or Franklin Covey’s The 7 Habits Of Highly Successful People. The book spells out seven habits successful people have employed and why they should be emulated. When those habits originate from an abnormal individual, and they almost always do, it’s not unusual for folks to copy them.

If you are that person leading the way with a new trait, you can expect others to copy you. These people are the trendsetters, and they are some of the most successful and abnormal people in the world.

What you want to do as an abnormal person is to bridge the gap from trend follower to trendsetter. Doing so isn’t easy (by any means), but embracing the thing that sets you apart from the rest of us will certainly help.^[6]

4 Abnormal People Have Abnormal Ideas, And That’s A Good Thing

Whenever a situation occurs in a group that requires a solution, people put forth their ideas on how to overcome it. When an abnormal person gets involved, they tend to provide solutions that are best described as being “outside the box” or having “colored outside the lines.”

You’ve heard the cliche more than enough, and everyone is told to try and come up with solutions that think outside the box. The reason for this is simple: thinking outside of the usual way of problem-solving offers up new ideas and concepts (or revives far better old ideas) that might lead to improvement.

This is often pushed in businesses, but it also works for individuals. Entrepreneurs like Steve Jobs have proven, time and time again, that thinking outside the box offers better ways of getting from point A to point B. Suppose you’re willing to solve those problems by trying something completely different. In that case, odds are you will benefit in the long run.^[7]

Creative problem-solving can take a concept like a video rental business (Blockbuster) and advance it with mail-in rentals (Netflix). Because Netflix managed to try something new, it successfully upended a business model that succeeded for decades. Because of that, Blockbuster is down to a single store, and Netflix became an international business superstar.

3 Abnormal People Make The Best Teachers

Throughout our lives, we are taught by a plethora of people. Unless you’ve been homeschooled your whole life (which is not such a bad thing), there’s a good chance dozens of people had an opportunity to shape your young mind. When you think back on all of those teachers, the ones who stand out are probably a bit… abnormal.

The best teachers are often the ones who employ different teaching methods or are utterly antithetical to the progressive teaching norm. Most of us have enjoyed a teacher like this at one time or another, and they don’t just teach us; they make a difference in our lives.^[8]

Abnormal teachers are all over pop culture in films like Dead Poet’s Society. Still, education isn’t the only place an abnormal teacher can shine. Training programs and motivational speakers often draw abnormal people, and they can inspire and lead others to follow similar paths.

Think of every motivational speaker you’ve watched online. They are all led by innovative people who stray from the pack. Folks like Tony Robbins and Oprah Winfrey all use the things that make them different to help others achieve success and happiness.

2 Abnormal People Change The World

Throughout human history, change has often been initiated by people who don’t follow the rules. Those in society who are different and strive to make change can significantly impact the people around them.

The standouts in history are often abnormal in many ways. Think of people like Nikola Tesla, Leonardo da Vinci, Oscar Wilde, and others who managed to alter the landscape of science, art, and literature. They each did this by breaking the mold, straying from the path, and being different.

Advancement often comes upon the backs of abnormal people whose work changes the way we view the world. Copernicus’ findings certainly did this in the 17th century and in our own time the likes of Keto advocate Gary Taubes (video above) is doing the same. While he has been much vilified by many for his work (mostly due to political and not health reasons), he’s helped us realise what a huge mistake the McGovern committee made and what a horrific health disaster the government’s food pyramid is (more on that in another up and coming list!)^[9]

It takes a lot of courage to stray from the path in this regard, but the people who have done it successfully are the ones we often remember as those who changed the world. If they’ve taught us anything, it’s that keeping on the path and being like everyone else doesn’t leave an indelible mark on history.

1 Accepting Your Abnormality Can Be Therapeutic

If you’re an abnormal person, there’s a good chance you’ve spent your life hiding it from other people. When we’re children, we hide much of our personality from our peers, and this carries into adulthood. This can create severe psychological problems leading to anxiety, depression, and suicidal ideations.

Getting through childhood is never easy, but some adults have found a way to embrace the things that make them stand out, and it’s often therapeutic. While attending a convention, Star Trek actor Wil Wheaton was asked how he handled growing up and being called a “nerd” by a young fan in the audience.

He explained that while it isn’t easy growing up different, it does get easier as an adult. Wheaton has also discussed his struggles with anxiety and depression but has noted that his acceptance of what makes him different has helped him overcome and thrive.^[10]

When someone accepts who they are without conforming to the expectations of others, they often find that their lives are easier than they were before. Projecting who we think people want us to be instead of who we actually are is mentally exhausting (virtue-signallers beware!) While making that change is never easy, it’s often therapeutic.

Top 10 Tips For Perfect Happiness