> I am much more concerned with finding my own way and optimizing my own life rather than raging against the machine

I can't think of much to add to that; good luck!

(something my fencing master was inordinately fond of doing was asking people questions which could implicitly be taken in multiple ways just to see how they responded [hmmm... dangling a choice might easily have been a déformation professionelle?]; if you don't turn them up more rapidly via other means, that might be useful in sussing out the quieter nonconformists)