What it means to be edgy

https://www.quora.com/What-does-it-mean-to-be-edgy/answer/Alex-K-Chen

It often means that you have a strong personality, appear to be emotionally intense, Dionysian, like emotionally charged/provocative stimuli (many “edgelords” are trolls), are high-contrast, and like to bring a lot of energy into the room. You’re vivid/memorable at a level others aren’t. You rile people up in polarizing ways (you make people go LOL, generate excitement, and also generate “hater” energy”). You like to “up” the temperature parameter in simulated annealing/you have a sharp “impulse function”. Edgy people often take risks that others don’t. They’re often adrenaline-driven. On online forums, they often have the effect of dominating the entire social scene. It doesn’t necessarily have to be transgressive but often is. They will often give non-standard questions and answers, and are quicker to test you than the avg person is. Edgy behavior is often equated as risky, but fully mature people know how to utilize edginess to generate energy without the risk. Emotionally unstable people are often edgy precisely because “edgy” brings them the most proximal relief (and a very large percent of emotionally unstable behavior is classified as “edgy”, though a very cool-headed/calm person can still act edgy and not let the resulting emotions overwhelm them as much - though popular perception often draws the more emotionally intense/unstable to edgy).

Edginess is the fastest way to resolve uncertainty, though oftentimes it results in resolving it in the most negative way possible (eg many forms of edginess get you banned even if it begins with the STRONGEST POSSIBLE ENDORSEMENT)

It can bring states of states of awe/sublimation/meismerization in emotionally receptive people, often those who enjoy seeing pre-existing assumptions and strong beliefs get so thoroughly toppled/”messed with”. Edgy people are often higher engagement.

Many edgy people are bipolar or ADHD. Sometimes it mean you can sync manic cycles with other people (some people appreciate edginess b/c it brings A LOT of energy into the room, though it often comes in the form of “mixed phase bipolar energy” which isn’t the most productive). Edginess is often nihilistic, but edginess is also especially prevalent in innovators who fundamentally change social reality, and edgy people are sometimes the only people who have any desire to push the boundaries of organizations. Edginess often polarizes people, often causing high-openness fun-loving people tending to love you and authoritarian traditionalists (“ppl fear what they don’t understand”) to hate you.

Many edgy people also recognize other edgy people and some sync well. Edgy literature is pageturning. Early Paypal mafia days is edgy. Peter Thiel is edgy af. Early days of Thiel fellowship is edgy. Kim Dotcom is edgy. Howard Hughes is edgy. Elon Musk is edgy (though not the edgiest). The Social Network is edgy. Early Sean Parker was edgy. James D. Watson is edgy. Yishan Wong (2010–2014) was edgy. Twitter tends to attract many edgelords. Encyclopedia Dramatica is edgy. Autoadmit is edgy. Michael O. Church (Quora user) was edgy.

One concern with extreme levels of edginess (asides from extreme forms of edginess to trigger other people) is that edginess can distract from work. The Internet (and even YouTube recommendation algorithms) often thrive on edgy content, depending on the person.