Gelb Self-Tension — He Filmed the Embodiment of the Inheritance He Later Named as a Trap

At 42, in his closing remarks to David Perell, David Gelb names his grandfather's family inheritance as a trap. "You can do anything in the world you want — just be the best at it" sounds liberating; the just be the best qualifier installs identity-fusion with comparative achievement that "no matter how far you go and how good you do, it'll never be enough."[^1] He proposes substituting do your best and be yourself.

The same David Gelb is the documentary director who chose to film Jiro Ono. Jiro is the embodiment of the inheritance Gelb is critiquing. Jiro's entire life is organized around being the best at the narrowest possible craft. Jiro's son did not recognize him as his own father because Jiro was at work too much. Jiro's father was an absent alcoholic. The three-generation pattern Gelb chose to film is structurally isomorphic to the three-generation pattern Gelb is critiquing — and the documentary makes the pattern beautiful. Jiro's pursuit of perfection is rendered cinematically as the most admirable thing a life can be organized around.

The same content, filmed celebratorily and critiqued retrospectively, by the same person.