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I read a book that blew my mind a little

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Re: I read a book that blew my mind a little

#11

Peter Thiel almost certainly didn’t invent this. The idea that our decisions are heavily influenced by those around us is one of those things that’s been well-established in the relevant scientific communities for some time but has a hard time breaking into the popular consciousness because we don’t want it to be true.

He said Peter "popularized" it, not invented.

Re: I read a book that blew my mind a little

#13

You mean, the basic logic of kids in preschool who only want the toy some other kid is playing with? Yes, the world is full of sheep dazed by the sheer complexity and cacophony of the modern world. It's very hard to make logical decisions about every part of your life, instead people glom onto templates to follow. It's just a lot easier. Maslow's hierarchy of needs is a good, interesting idea. Maybe "wanting" the boo…

The problem is that going against it, while noble, is like swimming against the current of a tsunami. A single actor can't change how society works, and has to obey the laws of that society.

Re: I read a book that blew my mind a little

#14

You mean, the basic logic of kids in preschool who only want the toy some other kid is playing with? Yes, the world is full of sheep dazed by the sheer complexity and cacophony of the modern world. It's very hard to make logical decisions about every part of your life, instead people glom onto templates to follow. It's just a lot easier. Maslow's hierarchy of needs is a good, interesting idea. Maybe "wanting" the boo…

  > No one is happy it seems, yet everyone buys into the same materialistic sales campaigns and keeps doing the same thing over and over to try to make themselves happy, the colloquial definition of insanity.
i feel like we have developed in the modern world a kind of junk-food culture....

it doesn't provide much nutrition, so we get hungry again and eat more, we feel better for a short while, then we need it again... great for sales, maybe not great for you

Re: I read a book that blew my mind a little

#16

Peter Thiel almost certainly didn’t invent this. The idea that our decisions are heavily influenced by those around us is one of those things that’s been well-established in the relevant scientific communities for some time but has a hard time breaking into the popular consciousness because we don’t want it to be true.

[deleted]

Re: I read a book that blew my mind a little

#17
post #12

What is surprising about people wanting to fit in with one another? There is nothing new about monkey see monkey do.

Right, nothing new. But every now and then it is a good reminder to see things a bit more clearly. When you want something, it is powerful to be able to pause and realize the wanting arises because of what others do, not intrinsically.

Re: I read a book that blew my mind a little

#18
post #13

You mean, the basic logic of kids in preschool who only want the toy some other kid is playing with? Yes, the world is full of sheep dazed by the sheer complexity and cacophony of the modern world. It's very hard to make logical decisions about every part of your life, instead people glom onto templates to follow. It's just a lot easier. Maslow's hierarchy of needs is a good, interesting idea. Maybe "wanting" the boo…

The problem is that going against it, while noble, is like swimming against the current of a tsunami. A single actor can't change how society works, and has to obey the laws of that society.

Is the point to change how society works or just to recognize it and not let it change how you work?

Re: I read a book that blew my mind a little

#19
I've got very different politics to Peter Thiel, but I've long been interested in why he thinks what he thinks. I think he's the most honest and interesting billionaire around.

The place to go seems to be Girard's Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World, but I'll need to take a holiday on a beach somewhere to have the headspace to get through its ~500 pages.

Re: I read a book that blew my mind a little

#20
Thoughts:

* Presumably everything starts as an extrinsic desire (when we are born). What is process of an extrinsic desire becoming intrinsic?

* If we figure out this process does that mean we can transform every extrinsic desire into an intrinsic desire and thus make our success chances higher?

* If so, how do we choose which desires we would want as intrinsic?

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