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“I am observing from an objective position” is the surest sign of a deeply compromised thinker.
Keep Your Identity Small (2009)
11–20 of 176 posts
Re: Keep Your Identity Small (2009)
#12This validates why discussions on HN (or even reddit) are more sincere and useful than, say, Quora.
Re: Keep Your Identity Small (2009)
#13Earlier quoted context omitted.
In tech, people ascribe you an identity as much as you claim one yourself. When I am not around, I have been described to people as "A DevOps guy" or "A Network Guy". People then treat me accordingly. But, being human (or an approximation thereof), I am not just one thing.
Come on, the dentist is also the dentist... taking those titles to personally imo is a too big identitiy to start with. We know you are all individuals ;)
Yes, we're all individuals!
Obligatory Monty Python scene: https://youtu.be/KHbzSif78qQ
Re: Keep Your Identity Small (2009)
#14Not labeling myself was something I figured out at 15/16. One thing I've never figured out it why people label themselves.
Re: Keep Your Identity Small (2009)
#15Quoted post unavailable.
Holy moly. People cannot escape cognitive biases even by knowing about cognitive biases. This includes you. It seems that you think you have somehow transcended this condition. This is just another bias. And this particular one is maybe the most insidious of all because it convinces you you're better than most on a fundamental level and protects you from introspection and criticism. Seek humility.
Re: Keep Your Identity Small (2009)
#16Imagine a conversation with someone with "believer in x framework, ex y, z" in their Bio and compare your biases with same user but with a handle anon123.
Re: Keep Your Identity Small (2009)
#17Since Paul wrote that, people have made so many more things part of their identity, including JavaScript which he points out in the essay was not a particularly identity-charged topic in 2009. With the rise of the frameworks, it has become an identity-charged topic with JS devs now segregated into tribes that insist on using their preferred framework for every webapp they build. It's not about assessing the right too…
In tech, people ascribe you an identity as much as you claim one yourself. When I am not around, I have been described to people as "A DevOps guy" or "A Network Guy". People then treat me accordingly. But, being human (or an approximation thereof), I am not just one thing.
I've always tried to go with (or steer toward) something like "a problem solver".
I just like to solve problems. Sometimes it's builds and deploys, sometimes it's the network, and sometimes it's the car in the driveway. Give me a few, I'll figure something out.
Re: Keep Your Identity Small (2009)
#18My view is that having a "small identity" is basically impossible in any practical sense. Many issues are inherently subjective, and even for issues that are (philosophically speaking) objective, actual human individuals rarely have the time or the access to data to form a genuinely objective view. We all use heuristic thinking, all the time, which is inevitably massively biased by all kinds of things related to our…
Your identity is not fully in your control but not fully out of it either. One can make a conscious choice to “find a tribe” or to not do that.
I believe this essay argues that one should make a conscious choice to avoid tribe affiliation (even if that affiliation is only in your own head) in order to be a better thinker.
Re: Keep Your Identity Small (2009)
#19Not labeling myself was something I figured out at 15/16. One thing I've never figured out it why people label themselves.
"I don't label myself" - person who labels self with not labeling self.
Labels are useful for finding community. This becomes more essential the less popular or the more marginalized you or parts of you are.
Re: Keep Your Identity Small (2009)
#20Not labeling myself was something I figured out at 15/16. One thing I've never figured out it why people label themselves.
Isn’t “someone who doesn’t label oneself whereas other people do” a label? :)