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Keep your identity small (2009)

paulgraham.com

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Re: Keep your identity small (2009)

#51

Post by beatpanda »

beatpanda wrote: post #49

This essay only works because Paul Graham is a white man in America, whose 'identity' is the presumed default in the society he lives in. Anything he makes a part of his identity, he gets to choose. If he chooses nothing, he has the luxury of being 'just normal' and gets to go through life thinking of himself as perfectly rational. Sometimes you get to choose what you identify with. Other times, people choose for you…

P.S., if you're in San Francisco:

>On Thursday morning, a San Francisco police sergeant shot and killed a woman who was driving a suspected stolen car near the Bayview neighborhood, officials said. There was no immediate indication that the 27-year-old woman had a weapon or was trying to run down the sergeant before the shooting, police said.

There's a vigil tonight at 8:30 at Shafter Ave and Elmira Street in San Francisco, and if you're nearby and you're reading this, you should be there.

Re: Keep your identity small (2009)

#52

Post by lizard »

phantom_oracle wrote: post #17

> Politics, like religion, is a topic where there's no threshold of expertise for expressing an opinion. All you need is strong convictions. What I don't get is who/what determines a threshold? A university degree? 10 years of experience? As others have rightly pointed out, perhaps there is no such thing as a "threshold of expertise". Any programmer could have 10 years of experience repeatedly cookie-cutting their be…

"Identity" in most psychological context generally refers to how a person perceives themselves. It's personal; there is no threshold. You can identify as The Greatest JavaScript Master of All Time and no one can do anything but disagree.

The way I read it, that's precisely the danger this essay is warning about.

When you start identifying as a "JavaScript Developer" you are making JavaScript development a part of who you are. Anything about JavaScript becomes personal. You expose yourself to attacks that aren't even being directed at you. The bigger you inflate your identity the more get hit, until eventually you can't hold a conversation without getting offended about something.

If you can keep these things out of your identity it is much easier to shrug off other opinions about them. You can stay objective and have meaningful conversations about the benefits and consequences of it. Because it's just a thing, it does its thing and gives you something to think about when it doesn't.

Identity is personal: Identity is what you choose to care about. Some things should become part of your identity. Studies find that in most successful relationships partners see each other as part of their own identity. But most things probably don't belong there.

Re: Keep your identity small (2009)

#53

Post by athenot »

I don't think it's so much about identity as it is about (in)security.

Regarding politics, I completely follow his argument: I don't identify with any party and like to think I'm evaluating each policy on its on merits and according to my personal beliefs. Which leads me to the other one.

I happen to be Catholic and strongly believe in the mental and societal framework put forth by that theology. However, I'm more than happy to discuss objectively with fellows of other faiths (including atheism) and will happily point out the common threads in seemingly opposite belief systems. Yet if others make arguments that I'm not in position to counter, I'm happy to let it go. My identity is deeply rooted as a Catholic, yet my security is not in being right.

There is a temptation on my part to put forth the argument that some religions foster greater amounts of insecurity, but I don't think that is fair to say. Pretty much every belief system has a version of the Golden Rule.

To take Paul Graham's argument just a little further, I would say that religion and politics can be misused as convenient mental shortcuts behind which to hide one's insecurities.

Re: Keep your identity small (2009)

#55

Post by reedlaw »

This is the weakest pg essay I've come across. I can think of so many counter-examples. "Stand for nothing and you'll fall for anything." It's very convenient to have a small identity with few convictions because convictions are costly. Sophie Scholl identified with anti-Nazi politics and it cost her her life. We have a word for people like her: hero.

Re: Keep your identity small (2009)

#56

Post by mcshicks »

Philip Tetlock has done a lot of research on objective measures of political expertise, specifically the ability to make objective predictions about future outcomes and likelihoods. He wrote a pretty famous book on it. The basic conclusion is nobody is really that good, but some people are objectively better than others. If you are really interested in this he has as website called "good judgement project" where you can test your ability to predict against other people on the site over time.

http://www.amazon.com/Expert-Political-Judgment-Good-Know/dp...

https://www.gjopen.com/

Re: Keep your identity small (2009)

#57

Post by bendbro »

zyxley wrote: post #46
jleader wrote: post #28

One of the biggest invisible biases is thinking you've managed to free yourself of invisible biases.

I'm reminded of the inevitable "I'm not biased, but I'm going to complain about this because I think it's an attack on me" that comes up whenever anyone on the internet mentions that institutional racism exists.

I'm reminded of the inevitable "I'm not biased, but I'm going to complain about this because I think it's an attack on me" that comes up whenever anyone on the internet mentions that speaking about institutional racism is just virtue signalling.

You can see that arguments of that form aren't effective. I don't think that's a compelling argument for anyone other than those who have similar beliefs to you. Arguments from the left like that are the reason for the resurgence of the right.

Re: Keep your identity small (2009)

#59

Post by denzil_correa »

birdDadCawww wrote: post #37

Whats funny is this theory pushes us to be more like computers. Less passion and more logic. Not to mention people on the Internet say and talk about options in forums reinforcing maybe a small part of ones identity. while in the real world you might get punched in the face. I still favor this theory but I would say spend less time on Internet interactions, so you don't have your personal held beliefs blossom into so…

> Less passion and more logic.

You can be more passionate and have more logic.

Re: Keep your identity small (2009)

#60

Post by fao_ »

> Why does this happen with religion and not with Javascript or baking or other topics people talk about on forums?

He must not spend a lot of time on Slashdot, or Hacker News, for that matter.

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