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How to Think for Yourself

paulgraham.com

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Re: How to Think for Yourself

#761

Post by CyanBird »

Geminidog wrote: post #724
aerosmile wrote: post #694

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fair enough - one article alone probably wouldn't have had the full impact. But I am envious of the generation of current high schoolers who can read HN all day. After a year or so, I imagine you can reprogram your mind quite a bit. Back in the late 90s, access to information like this was much more limited.

Start up bros are becoming generic this space is filling up with garbage as well.

That's just the natural life cycle of social platforms.

Looking forward to what will come next

Re: How to Think for Yourself

#762

Post by chrischattin »

waterhouse wrote: post #715
aerosmile wrote: post #677

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right this moment I am asking myself how to shift more traffic from paid to organic. I created a list of about 10 ideas, the one at the top of that list being so out there that I had to immediately share it with the team. About half of the team members loved it and thought it will be the best thing ever, and the other half thought it's too expensive and we shouldn't risk so much money on an unproven concept that coul…

> I quickly learned that flight testing is all about reading regulations and checking the aircraft for compliance. Sure, there is some flying involved I recently watched some videos of people doing plane checklists; one had an error within two minutes, another had only one pilot doing the checklist while the other was away. I've also heard that humans skipping items or entire checklists is a general problem. Out of c…

OCD is medically disqualifying for pilots.

Re: How to Think for Yourself

#763

Post by davidivadavid »

nicholast wrote: post #514
Arubis wrote: post #421

Over the years, I've found PG's essays much less compelling. As some sibling comments here have noted, there's a level of self-assuredness that feels increasingly disconnected from reality, like PG's become a synecdoche of SF VC-fuelled startup culture as a whole. Whether that's him changing, or me, or the world, I'm not certain--but I still look forward to them simply because the ensuing discussions here on HN tend…

Over time there has been a shift in theme from essays on startups to essays on parenting. I believe this example strongly falls in the latter.

That's my sentiment as well. I read it, then started skimming, thinking: was this written for 8 year old boys?

Re: How to Think for Yourself

#764

Post by davidivadavid »

typon wrote: post #584
heracles wrote: post #501

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you know people believe him? I can tell you why I love his essays: because of the way he argues. It is very transparent. I seldomly agree with his conclusion(s), but since he is so honest (he is not trying to deceive) in listing his arguments it is just a matter for me to find where he is wrong... or where I am wrong. I find this style so uncommon and stimulating that I hardly can stand the regular "opinion" h…

What are his arguments? That's what I'm puzzled about. Usually an argument is a series of premises followed by discussion of how those premises combine to lead to a conclusion. The conclusion can be deductive or inductive. I am not demanding a scientific or sociological proof - but there is not even an attempt at explaining why these premises hold. There are two types of people in this world - independent and non-ind…

There are no arguments in this essay. It reads like someone thinking out loud as they read through the Wikipedia page on the topic of conformity.

"I like PG but" (c) this essay was kind of embarrassing/cringy?

Re: How to Think for Yourself

#765

Post by bravura »

I loved this essay, but...

for me, one of the interesting failures is in assuming that there is only one dimension for being unconventional.

Even though one might like to think of themselves on an axis from "conventional" to "unconventional", my experience has shown that your normality can vary wildly depending upon whether we are talking about matters of love, finance, career, etc. As well as nuances therein.

What I think would be quite probing would be an exploration of the ways in which you might be unconventional in some aspects of your career, whereas conventional in others. It's these fine-differences that the articles suggests we could adjust to achieve parity overall in a particular domain, but does not actually explore...

Re: How to Think for Yourself

#766

Post by davidivadavid »

fanzhang wrote: post #182
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…

I don't see the point of the essay as how brilliant of an independent thinker he is, or even that being an independent thinker makes you a better person. The essay is useful because has specific tactical points on how to think better: questioning whether a statement you hear is true, or watching how other people find their beliefs. What do you think people should be doing more in the world? Or mental habits people sh…

Are people seriously discovering with this essay that they should ask themselves if something is true?

Re: How to Think for Yourself

#768

Post by randcraw »

ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #290

I dunno. Like everything, we need balance. Brilliance needs to be balanced with patience, persistence and practicality. Working for a Japanese corporation taught me to really respect the "three P's." They didn't have the kind of creativity to invent the next iPhone, but they had what it takes to make it better than everyone else, and in a fairly short time. Great things are accomplished by great teams, and teams need…

I agree that pg's model for thinking serves disruptive-based enterprises like small startups much better than consensus-based endeavors like a large corporation, a military, or a football team. Groupthink is an essential skill when cooperation is more important to success than innovation. Propaganda and the delusions that ensue from it are how you build teams.

Re: How to Think for Yourself

#769

Post by qPM9l3XJrF »

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…

"without evidence or data"

It seems worth noting that although this essay doesn't have a lot of the way in evidence/data, it is likely informed by PG's extensive experience as a startup investor. I would guess that YC has a proprietary dataset of the startups they've funded that they use to test hypotheses etc.

Re: How to Think for Yourself

#770

Post by qPM9l3XJrF »

newtwilly wrote: post #717
polote wrote: post #701

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What you are getting from HN at your current age with your experience, is not the same that what your young self would have gotten from the same content

I'm sure that's true. I would like to say that I am young and I remember getting turned on to podcasts and reddit and good books when I was 15 or so, and being exposed to rational thought and discussion did a lot for my development I think.

Same. Unfortunately the internet isn't what it once was. I can't say I'm optimistic this strategy would work out for today's youth.
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