The Valley Of Cringe in anticlimatic

I’ve seen young folks describe this thing they call “the valley of cringe,” which apparently is something one must pass through in order to reach Being Cool. Not much context is provided other than that, so I take it a few possible ways:

First- a person’s initial efforts at being cool are actually cringe, and at a certain point in development we realize this, and so then can adjust course and be Cool ever after.

or Second- only a person who is inherently cringe as a young adult- animated, unique, goofy, nerdy, etc- has the capacity to know Cool’s true face, at some undetermined time later once they have matured into Adult Nerd Who Knows Cool.

and Lastly, the way I take it- the valley of cringe is the exact same place as Being Cool. Or in other words, being cool, trying to be cool, thinking you know what cool is, thinking anything in particular is Cool- is cringe.

Who has anyone “cool” ever fooled, ultimately?
No one.