Crazy … or Just Early?

I saw a meme the other day: “Crazy is often being right too early.” I laughed, then nodded a little too hard.

We’ve all known someone like that. The person at the party who said, “Sugar is poison,” while everyone was still hugging cupcakes. The friend who insisted years ago that our phones were rewiring our brains, while we scrolled through cat videos and ignored them.

Sometimes it’s not the idea that’s wrong. It just shows up before the welcome mat is out.

Being early often looks a lot like being weird. People smile politely. They call you intense. Or ask if you’ve “been getting enough sleep lately.” But then ten years pass, and suddenly everyone’s quoting the person they once thought needed a nap and a hobby.

Arthur Schopenhauer once wrote, “All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.” It’s funny how true that feels in hindsight.

The world doesn’t like to be told hard truths, especially not while it’s in line for coffee. So it shrugs off the early voices, even when those voices are onto something.

Of course, not every strange idea is a hidden gem. There are people convinced birds aren’t real. There are folks wearing tin foil, just in case. That’s not insight. That’s… something else.

But the ones who turn out to be right often have one thing in common: they kept talking, even when no one wanted to listen. They weren’t loud to be liked. They just couldn’t sit still while something felt wrong.

Steve Jobs once said, “The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.” He wasn’t wrong, but he probably got a few strange looks along the way.

So if someone says something that sounds a little off, don’t laugh too fast. Give it a second. You might be hearing next year’s headline a little early.

And if you’re the one who’s been called “a bit much” or “that guy with the charts,” well, just relax. You’re probably fine.

History has a way of coming around to the weirdos.