Sam Altman essays read like someone ran Paul Graham's essays through GPT-3 (or vice versa). I'm excited for the day they do the big reveal.
The Strength of Being Misunderstood
51–59 of 59 posts
Re: The Strength of Being Misunderstood
#52Being 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 used to take some yoga classes where the series of beginner poses was the same every class. I was told that this was to keep people feeling as if they themselves were always a beginner — our shared revelation here really reminds me that there is tremendous value in sometimes questioning the “sure things”!
Re: The Strength of Being Misunderstood
#53Link me to an essay by this guy that doesn't reference "the most impressive people he knows" and how they do things. Yawn.
You, sir, are on that list.
You just don't know it yet.
Yiee.
Re: The Strength of Being Misunderstood
#54I 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.
Exactly. The virtue is being correct, not being misunderstood.
Re: The Strength of Being Misunderstood
#55Being 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 feel we should talk. Any book advice?
Thanks. My general book advice would be to read for pleasure above all, and to find mentors and practice something (anything) instead.
Current favourite minds that still bother to write include people like Matthew B. Crawford, Joscha Bach, and Alex Danco, mostly because they talk about the ideas of other people I've read. Be light.
Re: The Strength of Being Misunderstood
#56If you're bringing something new, people will misinterpret and take it in worst possible meaning. If they understand the value of it. Congrats, you've now got competitors! There. Now, I wouldn't conflate being successful and being loved by people.
If you're bringing something new, people will misinterpret and take it in worst possible meaning. If you are doing something new, how do you even express it effectively? Let's say you invent a new form of housing and all the words that currently exist for various forms of housing don't really describe what you do? You basically have to make up new language entirely for a scenario like that.
Which is why Steve showed the iphone and how to use it, also for more dramatic effect.
Re: The Strength of Being Misunderstood
#57If I could change the article's title, to reduce ambiguity, it would be, "The BUSINESS Strength of Being Misunderstood".
It's ambiguity that I wish Sam would have anticipated, and adjusted for, but the content is nevertheless good advice, once you contextualize where Sam is coming from (a VC spotting market opportunities):
In a certain context, misunderstanding IS a strategic advantage, if you're spotting a market opportunity, and have the resources to exploit the mismatch. You keep a window of opportunity open as long as the misunderstanding persists among those with resources who would otherwise compete.
In another context, interpersonal communication, misunderstanding is NOT a strength, if your goal was to convince people to be on your side. It means you need work on your communication skills. The title is a poor personal maxim to live by, and I hope not the takeaway people had.
Re: The Strength of Being Misunderstood
#58excellent!
now: what if the byline was "Donald Trump"
Re: The Strength of Being Misunderstood
#59The new “contrarian” religious belief that many thought leaders are now writing about. Is this a trend with high value that some people are getting huge gains for themselves from? I think so. Alternatively is it an echo chamber of high status people signalling just how contrarian they are? I suspect that some trend victims do this. However I think Sam Altman is just reflecting his thoughts in an essay to help him exp…
I think the main value of contrarian thinking comes from building up better understanding of the world by being wrong a lot and then forcibly changing your mind through arguments. If you are a contrarian throughout school and college and assumes most things they teach are wrong until you are sufficiently convinced you come out much better than someone who just accepted everything at face value simply because now you…
You don't have to be contrarian to be misunderstood.
That depends on other peoples' understanding more so than your agreeableness.