21–30 of 41 posts
I have not been formally educated in many things that I know nowadays (the english language is one of them, albeit far from perfect), but knowing how to read from an early age helped me enjoying the activity and knowing how to find information independently.
This one is probably very different than many people experienced, but I credit these things for being in the top 1% of earnings for my American co-hort (starting race, gender, educational attainment and economic class.) My parents were theologians and both grew up as missionaries kids in incredibly dangerous, remote, environments, the best thing they did was teach us to think critically and parse communication (espec…
Religious indoctrination was a negative in my experience, and contradictory to the critical thinking and skepticism taught of everything not blessed by the approved authorities.
OPs parents sound much more interesting than this :)
I'm not sure there was any one thing. I will say there was a big negative - teaching that society is a meritocracy and to have integrity. I would be much more successful and happy if they told me how crooked society really is.
Society is not a pure meritocracy, but I think it’s more merit-based than random. And people have agency over their success. This is despite society having crooked elements.
During one such instance, some people came to our neighbour's house. (Later I learnt they belonged to the coal mafia. And those guys had come to threaten him. In a very gentlemanly mafia style. With guns and all.) We were sitting on our stairs, counting stars and constellations (another one of my father's pastimes those days that got me interested in astronomy) and had a vantage of height to observe the whole thing. My father, for some reason, thought of indulging me. He took me on his lap and told me that when people converse, words don't matter. What matters is their intention. So it's very important to read between the lines. And to factor in the context and their role in it. He went on to explain the various intricacies of that conversation to drive his point.
That day, I lost my innocence.
As consequence, I usually that what I feel like, but have no urge to do things because I can; off course I can do them, but I'll do those things I want to do, not because they are (extravagant?) options.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Religious indoctrination was a negative in my experience, and contradictory to the critical thinking and skepticism taught of everything not blessed by the approved authorities.
Strong agree, big part of why I'm not involved with any theist _anything_ anymore, it was a unique experience and my parents were unique people, some of the few people I've met who really valued systematic thinking, arguing from first principles and were raised in a very plural cultural environment. Not many 5-15 year olds get age appropriate training in cultural bias and taught to see that so much people tie to thei…
As for a specific decision, my mother tells me it was encouraging me to befriend a supervisor who all of my other coworkers hated. This was at a sushi bar. The guy had an inflated ego, put other staff members down, got on everyone's case, and held grudges. So mother tells me I should just do everything the guy wants, and as months go by, there is no one on the team who the supervisor trusts more than me. Even though my performance was average, I was his favorite employee. It got to the point where I was fixing his computer, invited to his home, and doing his math homework for him (he was in culinary school). When I finally moved on to another job, he begged me to stay. Years later he was super friendly to me once when we randomly encountered each other. I think the moral of the whole thing was to not quit just because someone with authority over you has a crap personality.
This one is probably very different than many people experienced, but I credit these things for being in the top 1% of earnings for my American co-hort (starting race, gender, educational attainment and economic class.) My parents were theologians and both grew up as missionaries kids in incredibly dangerous, remote, environments, the best thing they did was teach us to think critically and parse communication (espec…