I feel the need to apologize to everybody whom I have called stupid, even if they deserved it. It is a mistake I’m willing to correct by telling you what we can learn from them without being judgmental or nasty.

If you have eaten Tide pods, got into debt you can’t pay back, behaved like a Karen, badmouthed the company you worked for and got fired—things that have a high-stake consequence for your life and reputation, you have a special gift society has failed to recognize.

More so, if your terrible life choices are documented in the digital airwaves of the internet, your contributions will be revered as high as the writings of Socrates and Nietzsche.

Don’t get too excited. This form of esteem won’t occur within the next few years. It will take some time to develop, but if you think about it carefully, everything seems to be pointing in that direction. Allow me to explain.

One of the biggest loads of crap I have ever heard in my life is that we should always learn from the best. Do not mistake me. There is nothing wrong in admiring people whose life you want to emulate, especially those who achieve great things and make a lot of money while also paying their taxes.

My problem is this: should they get all the glory, and all the credit, for holding the secret gems of what it takes to live a triumphant, fulfilling life? I don’t think so.

Social media, comment sections, forums, podcasts—has made it easy for you and I to strip our basic human decency to attack and insult strangers unapologetically. We do this with almost every piece of outrageous content we view online, including with people whom we disagree with politically.

Don’t deny you have done so too, and why wouldn’t you? It is brutally entertaining to watch people’s shortcomings and downfalls for our enjoyment, not to mention it satisfies an unconscious desire to compare ourselves with the miseries of others.

However, more than the thrill of seeing others fail, we are being given a free opportunity to learn what not to do in life, instead of what to do. This is something we consistently take for granted and fail to see its true blessing.

The internet itself has become the largest, densest, wealthiest, most encyclopedically detailed digital library of every imaginable, and unimaginable, act of shameless mishaps humanity could muster. And it shows no signs of slowing down.

Influencers, pranksters, charlatans, criminals, and attention-seekers are thriving because they are giving the public immediate access to what we have been told is wrong by moral systems. The current state of global consciousness wants tangible, unglamorous knowledge of the things traditional media censors.

If the markets respond to what the market demands, then this explains why those who parade their preposterous occurrences and opinions online are more famous than Hollywood celebrities.

Having said all of that, you can’t blame them for having a strong entrepreneurial spirit, as many of them make far more money than you will ever gain in a lifetime. Their lack of shame is precisely what makes them so bold.

Even if we are free to laugh and criticize their self-destructiveness, their impact on popular culture has evidently turned them into the heroes of our time for all the wrong reasons. Should we be mad at this?

It is your choice how to waste personal energy on something you cannot control, but if stupid people have proven anything is that they are ten steps ahead of us in life experience and practical knowledge than most of us. Why?

If our time on Earth is meant to be spent being useful and productive, helping others through their troubles, and leaving behind something dignified and worthy of learning from, why should we belittle stupid people for their unforgettable act of bravery which they have chosen to share with the world?

The gurus, the mentors, the life coaches, the underrated authentic leaders of the 21st century, aren’t academics with PhDs or folks with long résumés, but individuals with a comprehensive track record of catastrophes.

We shouldn’t be upset by them. At best, we should be thankful and admire their courage, as they have no qualms looking stupid in the face of public scrutiny, something many of you lack out of fear of taking chances.

Comment below if you have done anything stupid in your life and share it with the world so that you can join the club of the future Kriekergards and Voltaires. All it takes is courage.