Probably. The article itself had a comments CTA in point #25, a newsletter subscription CTA in #15, and then I stopped reading because it seemed like a hypocrit

Probably. The article itself had a comments CTA in point #25, a newsletter subscription CTA in #15, and then I stopped reading because it seemed like a hypocritical list in that it was on course to hit all the typical content marketing milestones. Struck me a bit like Thoreau praising the wilderness from the comfort of civilization. Which is not to say it's all nonsense. I think the front matter sums it up nicely. Life is about what you focus on. Your personal focus is what will separate you from the "dead fish". Focus is dividing what matters from what doesn't and that's unique to each person. People do this focus calculus all the time when deciding whether and who to marry, how many kids to have if any, what school subject to study and how hard to study, and so on. The "dead fish" in the article's analogy aren't really dead, but they're acting on subconscious, pseudo-instinctive drives (usually some form of search for social validation) whereas we can at least attempt to be more conscious of what we want our life to be about (social validation maybe doesn't matter as much as we often feel it does, at least relative to other things). This can sometimes mean abandoning, at least in part, the principles of those around us because they don't lead where we want to go (a common experience between parents and their children). Or at least being able to better negotiate compromises when someone knows what they actually want rather than just trying to get along.