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Keep your identity small (2009)

paulgraham.com

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Re: Keep your identity small (2009)

#61

Post by santoshalper »

reedlaw wrote: post #55

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.

Paul didn't say "have no convictions", he said "keep your identity small"... save your convictions for things that really matter, not stupid shit like sports teams, programming languages, favorite .

I don't feel like you grasped the article clearly.

Re: Keep your identity small (2009)

#62

Post by nevster »

jleader wrote: post #28

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

Ugh - we were talking with a group specifically about unconscious biases and while one person was relating how they had unwittingly found out one of their unconscious biases, another person looked on in pity and then declared how proud they were that they were free of bias. Seriously!

Re: Keep your identity small (2009)

#63

Post by reedlaw »

santoshalper wrote: post #61
reedlaw wrote: post #55

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.

Paul didn't say "have no convictions", he said "keep your identity small"... save your convictions for things that really matter, not stupid shit like sports teams, programming languages, favorite . I don't feel like you grasped the article clearly.

His main examples of identity were politics and religion.

Re: Keep your identity small (2009)

#64

Post by jlg23 »

clock_tower wrote: post #16
dylz wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let's discuss text editors. Anyone?

Death to Emacs! It's as arrogant as it is shoddy; it has a narrow provincial name for the Alt key, and it makes you learn Lisp in order to make it handle backspaces properly! Also, you Limeys need to learn how to spell. (There, that should get the conversational juices flowing...)

The "narrow [, [sic]] provincial name for the Alt key" is actually what it was once called. And backspace just works as expected in a unix environment.

> (There, that should get the conversational juices flowing...)

Sane people here know when to engage in a conversation, no trolling needed.

Re: Keep your identity small (2009)

#65

Post by jlg23 »

AlwaysBCoding wrote: post #15
dylz wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let's discuss text editors. Anyone?

lol @ Vim users that have to write configuration files, memorize complicated keyboard shortcuts, and install 20 plugins just to be able to copy and paste text between files. It's 2016, try using a real editor like Atom. (Am I doing it right?)

A user who has been using vi[m] and emacs for 20+ years - what are you trying to say? Please don't tell me that I should just use the mouse and context menus, I'm so much faster with touch typing....

[EDIT: yes, I know both editors very well and have config files for both; does this make me "worse" than someone who has not taken the time to learn how to configure his/her editor?]

Re: Keep your identity small (2009)

#66

Post by douche »

dylz wrote: post #3
angersock wrote: post #2

As a rule, any mention of religion on an online forum degenerates into a religious argument. Why? Why does this happen with religion and not with Javascript or baking or other topics people talk about on forums? Um, Graham is more than a little off here. Like, by a country mile.

Let's discuss text editors. Anyone?

Notepad++, anyone?

Re: Keep your identity small (2009)

#67

Post by douche »

zyxley wrote: post #48
pystack wrote: post #34

I've realized there are things I can change and there are things I cannot change. I try not to feel too strongly on the things I cannot change, because it distracts me from the things I can change. For politics, I try not to feel too strongly about Trump and the electoral process. I would still vote, but I know it would have a minimal impact, no matter how strongly I feel. Instead, I focus my energy on my business, w…

The Serenity Prayer may resonate with you. > God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, > Courage to change the things I can, > And wisdom to know the difference.

Better (and not tainted by association with AA...)

I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.

Re: Keep your identity small (2009)

#68

Post by newjersey »

reedlaw wrote: post #63
santoshalper wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Paul didn't say "have no convictions", he said "keep your identity small"... save your convictions for things that really matter, not stupid shit like sports teams, programming languages, favorite . I don't feel like you grasped the article clearly.

His main examples of identity were politics and religion.

I think it is possible/fairly safe to cheer for the Denver Bronco's or the New York Yankees, or Crystal Palace football club or Team SoloMid or whatever without making that one's identity.

Edit: Just now, someone showed me a video which claimed drinking apple cider vinegar helped prevent cancer. I tried to say that this is billshit because nobody can really say drinking something prevents cancer without a long-term study that I doubt this YouTube celebrity had done.

I don't claim I don't have a bias. But I don't think we should be sin free to cast the first stone on ideas.

Re: Keep your identity small (2009)

#69

Post by kaonashi »

Sometimes identity has a way of finding you, even if you try your hardest to keep it out. People define you, and depending on who or where you are, those definitions can have profound impact on your life.

This piece reads like a person who has never had to deal with that, or at least never had to think about it.

Re: Keep your identity small (2009)

#70

Post by hypertexthero »

Remind's me of Paul Buchheit's [I am nothing][1] and Jiddu Krishnamurti's [The observer is the observed][2].

An application by Buchheit (and others!) that improved my life: Gmail.

Two books by Krishnamurti that improved my life: Think on These Things and The First and Last Freedom.

[1]: http://paulbuchheit.blogspot.com/2011/08/i-am-nothing.html

[2]: http://www.jkrishnamurti.org/krishnamurti-teachings/view-dai...

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