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How to Think for Yourself

paulgraham.com

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Re: How to Think for Yourself

#681

Post by Kiro »

mdorazio wrote: post #673
neckardt wrote: post #667

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> > I went into Aerospace Engineering thinking that I'll be able to design radically different looking airplanes. > What is it you're doing as an entrepreneur you find so rewarding? The aerospace industry rewards making minor improvements to conventional airplanes rather than building something novel. Entrepreneurship rewards building something new and "radically different", which is what he was looking for in the fi…

Counterpoint: exceedingly few tech entrepreneurship companies are doing anything at all that is really new and "radically different". Most are doing rather small and unimaginative things that make money by doing some equivalent of selling more ads. If the GP commenter was working at, for example, SpaceX (a large aerospace company), I can 100% guarantee their work would be more meaningful and rewarding than at basical…

What's your definition of meaningful and rewarding? I'm an entrepreneur because I love waking up every day and do whatever I feel like. Nothing can be more rewarding for me. I'm not even that interested in what I'm building and it's certainly not something unique or special but it pays the bills and lets me be free.

Re: How to Think for Yourself

#682

Post by pgayed »

jolux wrote: post #632
ardit33 wrote: post #629

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know, but I rather hear sporting/fitness advice from someone that won NBA finals, or the soccer World Cup, then just some random loser. The winner at least can tell you how they did succeed personally, even if they have no comprehensive studies with data. On the other hand, you are just a random guy from the internet, and offering advice with no data at all. You might be broke and posting from your mom's base…

Many successful people overrate their personal characteristics and underrate the degree to which they were merely in the right place at the right time and such. Fortune favors the prepared, of course, but I personally believe there are far more people in the world who are adequately prepared for success who do not succeed because they are under-resourced or poorly connected.

> because they are under-resourced or poorly connected

This is soluble.

Re: How to Think for Yourself

#683

Post by [deleted] »

aerosmile wrote: post #646
ryeguy_24 wrote: post #615

Am I the only one is getting pretty bored of "formula for success" content? This essay and other's like it, without evidence or data, implies that some of us know the formula for success. I get it, the things that change convention are unconventional at first. This is the definition of unconventional. I agree with the general vector of his essay but this is just boring to me. Here is my formula for success (in case a…

I think you missed the point of the article. It explains why Bob is better than Sally in job A, but Sally is better than Bob in job B. Perhaps you figured that out, but I can't see that from your response, so I'll give you why this was so impactful for me. I went into Aerospace Engineering thinking that I'll be able to design radically different looking airplanes. After two degrees, three internships, three years of…

[deleted]

Re: How to Think for Yourself

#685

Post by dukeofdoom »

dukeofdoom wrote: post #521

I had two of those thoughts today, that would probably get me ostracized from society if I expressed them freely. Earlier today I overheard a teen girl with a giant behind, talking with her friend how she wants to go home and do nothing, to her obese friend, on a Friday. Sorry but this is not how teenagers acted in the past. And its not normal that so many young people are morbidly obese, stay at home do nothings. Pe…

These are pretty conventional counter sentiments online, I don't claim I independently thought of them. But you can't freely express them. Try talking about fat people at work, and report how well that goes over. After you lose your job, you might feel a little "ostracized" from society.

My point which I did not state adequately in my comment, is that obesity is huge problem, that people use empathy to cover up for.

I'll use cigarettes as an example, it wasn't until packages started showing graphic pictures of cancer, damaged lungs, and huge graphic labels and warnings. That the public/social pressure to quit, had substantial effect.

I think its misguided to put all our effort in protecting at risk individuals, when the responsibility lies with most of these people to lose weight, and strengthen their immune system.

You have to be a blind person to ignore the real authentic evidence of obesity in this country. I won't even bother to look for links to studies. Here's an article stating its 40% and higher.

https://www.usnews.com/news/healthiest-communities/articles/....

Its also directly linked to this pandemic in the USA. Its a direct predictor of mortality from COVID. Study.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7346803/

I don't oppose wearing masks, as a short term strategy to reduce infection. The evidence that they work is marginal. I have no problem wearing them, other than it may give a false sense security to at risk individuals.

But how long should we wear masks? A year, two years, a decade... ? Its very conceivable that technological innovation will take over, and cloth masks will become full-on ventilators. Which at that point really will resemble "space suits". So will wearing mandated "space suits" be a path that we want humanity to go down on? Or will nature select out the weak, like it has done for millions of years in our evolution.

Also, "my body my choice" has to be respected at some point. If we want to save the most lives, we would really want to isolate the most at risk elderly and mandate some nation wide weight loss program.

Mandating that everyone do an hour walk, lose weight if you are obese, and put a treadmill in every classroom, would save more a lot more lives than just masks.

Re: How to Think for Yourself

#686

Post by chenpengcheng »

jolux wrote: post #632
ardit33 wrote: post #629

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know, but I rather hear sporting/fitness advice from someone that won NBA finals, or the soccer World Cup, then just some random loser. The winner at least can tell you how they did succeed personally, even if they have no comprehensive studies with data. On the other hand, you are just a random guy from the internet, and offering advice with no data at all. You might be broke and posting from your mom's base…

Many successful people overrate their personal characteristics and underrate the degree to which they were merely in the right place at the right time and such. Fortune favors the prepared, of course, but I personally believe there are far more people in the world who are adequately prepared for success who do not succeed because they are under-resourced or poorly connected.

only when the tide turns, you get to see who was swimming naked.

luck plays an important part, but not everyone realizes it or admits it.

Re: How to Think for Yourself

#687

Post by ZephyrBlu »

hodgesrm wrote: post #370
amadeuspagel wrote: post #50

Like many of pg's essays there's an unqualified glorification of being independent. For example the suggestion that hiring conformist people is something that just happens. It seems more likely that companies more or less consciously hire such people, because a company where everyone thinks independently would be one where everyone wants to do something different, and nothing would get done, no one could agree on any…

> Bryan Caplan in his book The Case Against Education suggests that employers value college degrees partly as a signal of conformism, and that that's the reason college is so hard to replace. Some of the best recruiting advice I ever heard is that college degrees signal you can complete things. Most worthwhile objectives involve a fair amount of drudgery.

You can prove that you can complete things in other ways though.

A degree shows you can complete things that you are told to. I.e. conforming.

A lot of people seem to come out of university and be somewhat useless in a workplace.

I think that's because university is 4yrs of doing what you're told, so by the time you come out your default mode is, "wait for someone to tell me what to do".

Re: How to Think for Yourself

#688

Post by RIDDLERTHIS »

aerosmile wrote: post #646
ryeguy_24 wrote: post #615

Am I the only one is getting pretty bored of "formula for success" content? This essay and other's like it, without evidence or data, implies that some of us know the formula for success. I get it, the things that change convention are unconventional at first. This is the definition of unconventional. I agree with the general vector of his essay but this is just boring to me. Here is my formula for success (in case a…

I think you missed the point of the article. It explains why Bob is better than Sally in job A, but Sally is better than Bob in job B. Perhaps you figured that out, but I can't see that from your response, so I'll give you why this was so impactful for me. I went into Aerospace Engineering thinking that I'll be able to design radically different looking airplanes. After two degrees, three internships, three years of…

What would have been the right time? When you were a student studying during your first degree or your second? In hindsight, I think it is almost dubious to assume that exposure to this article would have helped you at any given time in the past. It's quite possible you would not have come to the same realization about tech entrepreneurship had you not obtained your AE and had the experiences that you did.

Re: How to Think for Yourself

#689

Post by [deleted] »

ardit33 wrote: post #629
ryeguy_24 wrote: post #615

Am I the only one is getting pretty bored of "formula for success" content? This essay and other's like it, without evidence or data, implies that some of us know the formula for success. I get it, the things that change convention are unconventional at first. This is the definition of unconventional. I agree with the general vector of his essay but this is just boring to me. Here is my formula for success (in case a…

I don't know, but I rather hear sporting/fitness advice from someone that won NBA finals, or the soccer World Cup, then just some random loser. The winner at least can tell you how they did succeed personally, even if they have no comprehensive studies with data. On the other hand, you are just a random guy from the internet, and offering advice with no data at all. You might be broke and posting from your mom's base…

[deleted]

Re: How to Think for Yourself

#690

Post by wpietri »

pdimitar wrote: post #596
wpietri wrote: post #525

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Part of why I'm sure is that I was prone to thinking like this as a teen. I was a smart kid from a family that valued smartness trying to get by in a world that generally didn't, and certainly didn't value the kid of weirdness that in retrospect made me well suited for what turned out to be hot career. I made it to an environment better suited to me (SF, tech industry) and eventually got the fuck over myself. I used…

> E.g., valorizing the performative anti-caring about what people think. To me that's a sign of insecurity and/or a trauma reaction to some past person who was overbearing. I can't recall ever meeting even one person who didn't get somewhat scarred over the fact that he/she disagreed with the majority of the people around them [at least once in their lives]. That insecurity, as you call it, is IMO present in most peo…

Good questions.

Sure, everybody has a history. Nobody agrees with everybody all the time. Same for me. My issue with this essay is that it doesn't examine that history and how it affects people.

As to the latter, I think you're confusing nonattachment with detachment. I've written more about that here: https://www.quora.com/I-have-learned-that-attachment-leads-t...

Another way to look at it is in terms of having a choice in response to some stimulus. If somebody expressing a desire compels me to do a, "Yes sir yes sir three bags full" routine, I'm not free. But I'm equally unfree if my response is to shout, "Fuck you, you're not my dad." To me, really thinking for myself comes after my reactions pass and I'm at peace again.

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