The Strength of Being Misunderstood • Hacker News Board

Re: The Strength of Being Misunderstood

#21

Post by sharker8 » Tue, Dec 01, 2020, 11:11 PM UTC

gnramires wrote: post #19

sharker8 wrote: post #12

Format of a techno-optimist essay. Formulate a common neurosis that people are self conscious about. State common knowledge about this neurosis. State that the common knowledge is an oversimplification. Break the problem into a graph on two axes. Bonus points if you help people think they are avoiding identity politics in some way with this new knowledge.

Retort. Format of a snarky unfruitful comment. Don't address the main point of the article, dismiss with a platitude. Attack article structure. Bonus points for unwarranted political supremacy. http://bash.org/?23396

Common knowledge is the platitude. OP lints as valid although possibly not sound. No defense on final accusation. Riposted.

Re: The Strength of Being Misunderstood

#22

Post by exolymph » Tue, Dec 01, 2020, 11:39 PM UTC

phnofive wrote: post #4

> as long as the history books get it right, they take some pride in letting the newspapers get it wrong. “They’ll like us when we win!” Not a bad philosophy, but you still need to have enough confidence in your own vision.

Vae victis, baby ;P

Re: The Strength of Being Misunderstood

#23

Post by User23 » Tue, Dec 01, 2020, 11:41 PM UTC

This makes me think of a fun Feynman essay, "What do you care what other people think?" I believe that the common response to that is to assume that it's meant to be snarky or something, but I view it as an honest question. Therefore I often find myself asking myself, "what do you care what other people think?" Sometimes the answer is "nothing really" and sometimes it's more like "well this group of other people have a higher level of expertise or experience than me so if they disagree I want to know why." Mostly though I am quite comfortable being outcome independent with respect to other people's opinions. It's nice if they like me or what I have to say, but mostly it really doesn't matter if they don't.

It's also an observably necessary trait for paradigm shifting scientific progress, since advancing a new paradigm requires defending the claim that every other subject matter expert is actually wrong, and human nature being what it is they will never react kindly to that assertion.

Re: The Strength of Being Misunderstood

#24

Post by plutonorm » Tue, Dec 01, 2020, 11:45 PM UTC

But no one ever remembers. I've taken a stand on many an unpopular position that turned up good. Not only do people forget that you said anything but they manage to convince themselves that they knew all along. The time horizon of most people is far too short for this tactic to work.

Re: The Strength of Being Misunderstood

#25

Post by hhas01 » Wed, Dec 02, 2020, 12:03 AM UTC

motohagiography wrote: post #15

Being misunderstood is a great temporary moat. I could write a book on this, but suffice it to say, I didn't have confidence in my own vision until I took the time to really look at others and realized that the main difference between me and the average idiot was that I had bothered to look at the ideas of other idiots at all. It was like their entire ontology had become an ant farm. It was the moment I realized, I a…

I’m the world’s biggest idiot and I approve of this message.

Re: The Strength of Being Misunderstood

#26

Post by DoreenMichele » Wed, Dec 02, 2020, 12:07 AM UTC

[1] In the memorable words of Coco Chanel, “I don’t care what you think about me. I don’t think about you at all.”

This.

The thing that makes me the most crazy about the internet is the number of people who pay an excessive amount of attention to me and remember ridiculous stuff about things I said years ago or whatever and are just wrapped around the axle about how I am not entitled to my stupid opinion or something.

And I just always feel like "If you think I'm so dumb or something, why in the hell do you clearly and obviously invest so very much of your time, effort and memory in tracking details about me and my life? Good lord."

Re: The Strength of Being Misunderstood

#27

Post by hhas01 » Wed, Dec 02, 2020, 12:09 AM UTC

npmaile wrote: post #17

I feel like the strength of being misunderstood is more like the strength of being correct. Just because other people don't understand you doesn't mean you are correct. If you aren't correct, this post will do nothing for you but make you bull-headed and closed off to criticism.

“Just because other people don't understand you doesn't mean you are correct.”

True. Also true that it doesn’t mean you aren’t. Though it does at minimum strongly suggest that your attempts to explain yourself to others have thus far sucked.

Re: The Strength of Being Misunderstood

#28

Post by im3w1l » Wed, Dec 02, 2020, 12:14 AM UTC

User23 wrote: post #23

This makes me think of a fun Feynman essay, "What do you care what other people think?" I believe that the common response to that is to assume that it's meant to be snarky or something, but I view it as an honest question. Therefore I often find myself asking myself, "what do you care what other people think?" Sometimes the answer is "nothing really" and sometimes it's more like "well this group of other people have…

As an honest question, because there are perks to being liked. You will be given access to this and that.

Re: The Strength of Being Misunderstood

#29

Post by DoreenMichele » Wed, Dec 02, 2020, 12:19 AM UTC

motohagiography wrote: post #15

Being misunderstood is a great temporary moat. I could write a book on this, but suffice it to say, I didn't have confidence in my own vision until I took the time to really look at others and realized that the main difference between me and the average idiot was that I had bothered to look at the ideas of other idiots at all. It was like their entire ontology had become an ant farm. It was the moment I realized, I a…

You are reminding me of this: https://thesongfoundry.com/i-am-an-idiot/

(Comment edited)

Re: The Strength of Being Misunderstood

#30

Post by licebmi__at__ » Wed, Dec 02, 2020, 12:38 AM UTC

motohagiography wrote: post #15

Being misunderstood is a great temporary moat. I could write a book on this, but suffice it to say, I didn't have confidence in my own vision until I took the time to really look at others and realized that the main difference between me and the average idiot was that I had bothered to look at the ideas of other idiots at all. It was like their entire ontology had become an ant farm. It was the moment I realized, I a…

I have a similar take, but I framed my thought around failure. I realized there are hundreds of ways that my life will get worse by taking some kind of choice, and also hundreds of ways that my life will get worse if I take the opposite choice. So by embracing the fact that is quite likely that I will fail, I got rid of the fear and the paralysis.