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How to Think for Yourself

paulgraham.com

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Re: How to Think for Yourself

#381

Post by vincentmarle »

baron_harkonnen wrote: post #131

PG sure has been on a kick about how brilliant of an independent thinker he is in a sea of conformity. It's clear in all of his writing that he's perpetually beating around the bush about some current itch he has, I wish he would just come out and say it with out pretending to be a deep thinker: > Do you want to do the kind of work where you can only win by thinking differently from everyone else? I mean, taken outsi…

> This entire thing reads like it was torn from the journal of a clever middle-schooler who thinks he's so much more clever then the world.

That honor is already claimed by Sam Altman's blog.

Re: How to Think for Yourself

#382

Post by blahblehblooh »

spdionis wrote: post #268
baron_harkonnen wrote: post #131

PG sure has been on a kick about how brilliant of an independent thinker he is in a sea of conformity. It's clear in all of his writing that he's perpetually beating around the bush about some current itch he has, I wish he would just come out and say it with out pretending to be a deep thinker: > Do you want to do the kind of work where you can only win by thinking differently from everyone else? I mean, taken outsi…

While the rest of your post sounds reasonable: > Right now Silicon Valley VC thinking is the dominant ideology Are you sure? Are you talking about the US? And even then it's probably true for only ~half of the states? Are you talking about the business world? The whole of EU seems to strongly disagree with SV VC thinking. Edit: Why doesn't the EU replicate the success of US startups? You think EU policy makers don't…

>>Edit: Why doesn't the EU replicate the success of US startups? You think EU policy makers don't understand what is needed for that? Or that there's not enough "talent"? I doubt it. I think it's a more or less conscious decision to avoid the US startup culture. It's a cultural thing.

If it is indeed a cultural thing, I would argue that they have also thrown the baby out with the bathwater.

Example: here is a very curious thing about the GDPR - non-European countries cannot really put a "counter-tariff" (metaphorically speaking) because nothing that useful has actually come out of Europe to tariff in retort. We did see some comical efforts of some websites to block the entire continent of Europe, but what would have been actually interesting is if non-European countries could block, say, the Google of Europe. Europeans had no skin in this game so to speak, because they haven't actually produced anything at that level of utility for a long time.

Note: I am neither American nor European, and my country has done almost nothing of note either. But I am not going to say that "oh, we don't need all that SV shit because as a culture, we think it is beneath us".

Re: How to Think for Yourself

#383

Post by watwut »

galaxyLogic wrote: post #284
nobinstok wrote: post #270

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This reminds me of one of the more embarrassing episodes of my life. My friends and I (pretty nerdy types) were at a bar with an amateur MMA fighter. Guy was like 6'10", covered in huge muscles and tattoos. One of the nicest guys I've ever met, but you definitely wouldn't want to get on his bad side. Anyway we didn't know the guy too well, lots of getting-to-know you type stuff. The MMA fighter after a few hours ment…

It's not a moral thing. It's called inductive learning. We classify people and things based on our past experiences. The more experiences you have the better the inductive method works. It's good to learn about black swans, else you might make the incorrect logical conclusion that swans are ALWAYS white. And more importantly learn that "black swans" is not only about swans. There can be sports-types who also like int…

As someone who did sport and hung out with sport types a lot, they always played computer games. I mean, you have to be deep in a bubble to think that people who do sport are either a.) invariably dumb b.) do not play computer games.

> There can be sports-types who also like intellectual activity

Quite a lot of them, to the point of such people not being exceptional black swans at all. That is what the MMA fighter commented on - the only way to be surprised over him playing computer games is that you dont talk to athletes at all.

Re: How to Think for Yourself

#384

Post by jbay808 »

whimsicalism wrote: post #319
TigeriusKirk wrote: post #313

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>PG sure has been on a kick about how brilliant of an independent thinker he is in a sea of conformity. In recent years conformists have gotten louder and louder, and more and more insistent that everyone should conform. His recent essays are his reaction to that. It would be a strategically bad response for someone of lesser stature, but in his place he can afford to weather the storm and it's valuable for the tiny,…

> In recent years conformists have gotten louder and louder, and more and more insistent that everyone should conform. You grew up in America and think that? Let me guess, you think that pushing for something like trans access to bathrooms is the "conformist" position. Based on the values my parents told me to conform to, there's been a massive collapse of conformity in the last two decades.

If one pictures the changing of norms as a process that behaves like the shifting of domain boundaries within a magnet, then you could both be right!

Re: How to Think for Yourself

#385

Post by crumbshot »

typon wrote: post #205

I find reading this article a very uncomfortable experience. It's just assertion after assertion without evidence to back them up. Do people believe this guy because he's rich?

Definitely part of it, along with the cult following he's managed to gather here.

Quite ironic to see the high priest of HN commanding his devotees on how to think for themselves.

Re: How to Think for Yourself

#386

Post by dragonwriter »

georgewsinger wrote: post #375

There are only two types of contrarian views. 1. Taking a position that is so novel that your peers neither agree nor disagree with it. Example from 15 years ago: believing that people should live on floating cities. Most people probably would disagree with this if they thought about it some (or understood the ideology behind the desire to seasted), but the position was so strange that it wouldn't stimulate immediate…

I was going to suggest a third but I realize it's a hybrid: having a view that in summary fits the latter category but for which the detailed argument is in the former category.

Re: How to Think for Yourself

#388

Post by meheleventyone »

bob33212 wrote: post #177
baron_harkonnen wrote: post #131

PG sure has been on a kick about how brilliant of an independent thinker he is in a sea of conformity. It's clear in all of his writing that he's perpetually beating around the bush about some current itch he has, I wish he would just come out and say it with out pretending to be a deep thinker: > Do you want to do the kind of work where you can only win by thinking differently from everyone else? I mean, taken outsi…

There is a large socialist/anti-capitalist/woke movement on Twitter and a somewhat in the real world as well. I assume PG would like to call all those people out directly. But he cannot because in the current media and social climate the news summary will read: "Older White SV Billionaire living in England tells poor American minorities to stop complaining because their politics would lead to an economy with less inn…

If that's true then this essay is hilarious. Independent thinkers are the ones adhering to the capitalist status quo rather than the people trying to challenge it?

Sounds backwards.

Re: How to Think for Yourself

#389

Post by whimsicalism »

jbay808 wrote: post #384
whimsicalism wrote: post #319

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> In recent years conformists have gotten louder and louder, and more and more insistent that everyone should conform. You grew up in America and think that? Let me guess, you think that pushing for something like trans access to bathrooms is the "conformist" position. Based on the values my parents told me to conform to, there's been a massive collapse of conformity in the last two decades.

If one pictures the changing of norms as a process that behaves like the shifting of domain boundaries within a magnet, then you could both be right!

Why would I have any reason to picture it in that way?
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