The true nature of cool isn't contained in an aesthetic, insofar as it isn't actually a pair of shades, no matter how wicked they may be, nor beats of any level of illness. This is a variety of cool, a coolness of appearance, but it isn't reflective of the reality of cool, the coolness that matters. It is the coolness of temperment, the coolness of Beowulf when he says, "Gyf him edwendan æfre scolde bealuwa bisigu bot eft cuman, ond þa cearwylmas colran wurðaþ." It's the cool of King Henry V when he says, "In the cool Insolence of Pride, and Majesty, Ask me again—if I can wish Thee dead?" the cool of Shakespeare's "She was a cool put-together chick / That made men thrill. But Hamlet, he thought / She was from Uglyville." It is a coolness that means nothing.

Real coolness is contained and represented by the phrase, "That's really cool of you." You have to consider: you don't use that cool when someone makes like Tony Hawk and does a wicked 360 double touchdown on a ramp. You also don't use it when someone fights off a horde of enemy monsters. You say 'That's really cool of you' when you have to move all your stuff and a friend volunteers to help out out of nowhere. This cool, the true cool, is one of spirit rather than style. In that, it's completely compatible with dorkiness, because dorkiness is a style rather than a spirit. So a person can have the aesthetic of a dork, but the soul of a really cool person.