It seems like when you reach a certain age, there are just some phrases you really can't avoid hearing on a daily basis. "Traffic was just horrible," "Isn't the weather just (insert adjective)" or that dreaded cliche "Thank God it's Friday" always seem to appear in a conversation at some point throughout the week. Now admittedly most of these phrases are so frequently heard because they're a part of the acceptable business small talk. Those little topics that everyone knows to be safe and relatable to anyone who's spent even a short period of time in the workforce. I'm pretty sure the biggest culprit out there though is "Fake it til you make it." I will admit that while I've never liked the phrase, I do find it to be rather fascinating. Half the time people utter the phrase it's as a half-hearted attempt to promote confidence in someone else. This use of the phrase has become a bizarrely debated frame of mind apparently. Half of my Google results were articles about why "faking it til you make it" was a great method of self-improvement and the building of confidence. The other half were about why faking it was a terrible idea. Either way though it certainly has produced some weird posters. The other times I've heard this phrase uttered it's as a weird way to fool yourself into thinking your day/ life isn't as miserable as it seems. A big thing the company I work for does every morning is to hold a brief meeting to discuss the upcoming day. The start of every one of these meetings is to ask how people are feeling, which generally leads to one person claiming to be in a better mood than they are. While there really isn't a need to extrapolate on your mood there is always someone who admits that they're trying to fake it til they make it. Now what in the world does this thought process have to with tonight's sticker you may be wondering. Well as soon as I saw "Act like you know," I couldn't help but feel that it was pretty similar to "fake it til you make it." Both phrases seem to emphasize the idea of making it appear like you are better equip to handle a situation than you are. For some reason though, "act like you know" doesn't seem to bother me as much. Maybe it's because there isn't an ulterior reason for the pretending. You're just in a situation where you're unsure of yourself, so you just need to act your way through this moment. There isn't a need to keep the charade up to make others think you're better than you are. Sure the point of the fake it phrase is to pretend until you're confident in your abilities but knowing where that line in the sand is seems to be a bit harder to discern. The phrase in tonight's sticker just feels like a more plausible thought to me, act through it for now and figure it out for real later on. I think the fact that I found this sticker on Pitt's campus probably plays a small role in my interpretation. I mean I can't tell you the amount of tests and papers I faked my way through at the last minute while I was there. Although Urban Dictionary claims "Act like you know" means to recognize or stop playing, so I may be very wrong about this. I did try to find the mind behind tonight's sticker but it doesn't seem like I had any luck finding it. Although, I did find some interesting things that use this phrase. There is an acting coach who created the site actlikeyouknow.org to drum up some business for his workshops. NPR looked to have a series called Act Like You Know that seemed to introduce listeners to musicians. Apparently there is a group of guys that seem to do bike tricks on the streets who have created a Vimeo site with brief collections of their performances. They also seem to have a small online shop that sells a variety of items with the phrase on them. With pins, hats and shirts with different designs showcasing the phrase, I really thought that this sticker was one of theirs. I mean it may be but I couldn't find definitive proof that they made stickers like it. I did find a couple of different stickers from other people that also use this phrase but none that use this same style. But I think my favorite find was a song by Fat Larry's Band. It's a nice smooth and funky thing from 1982 that really catches your attention within the first couple of notes. It was an interesting twist to see that this group actually comes from Philadelphia. Now some of you may have heard this song before, it was apparently used in one of the Grand Theft Auto games, but it was delightful discovery for me tonight.
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Maggie Ondrey
An amateur photographer and writer capturing a small portion of the city. Archives
August 2017
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