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Anti-mimetic tactics for living a counter-cultural life (2021)

epsilontheory.com

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Re: Anti-mimetic tactics for living a counter-cultural life (2021)

#31

Post by rablackburn »

asplake wrote: post #4
ttctciyf wrote: post #3

> The sooner you kill this beast within yourself, the sooner you can get to the real work of creating something that the market itself will validate Highly anti-mimetic then, so long as you're committed to entrepreneuring and being validated by the market. Wait, what?

To be fair there was an “–or not” at the end of that quote, and I assume that the dash was for emphasis. Not clear what was meant by it though

I read it as you need to stop consuming and start creating _something_ if you’re ever going to get noticed (we all need to be noticed, humans die when they are alone).

But creating something doesn’t guarantee you’ll succeed. A “You’ve got to be in it to have a chance at winning it” kind of message.

Re: Anti-mimetic tactics for living a counter-cultural life (2021)

#32

Post by ip26 »

lo_zamoyski wrote: post #22
xyzelement wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe off topic to what you meant but I find the "to forget we will die" an unfortunate frame. I find some of the best people are motivated by the knowledge that they will die and therefore try to make good and impactful use of their limited time here. I recently had a thought : I know a rabbi who has 11 children. If all of his children follow suit, he will get to meet 121 of his grandchildren in the next 20-30 years…

> Do you really lament your own death or do you have a feeling of 'I will be continued.' The rabbi is very blessed and I am happy for him, but it is important to note that this line involves an equivocation of two meanings of "continuation", using the figurative meaning (in the sense of "legacy") to suggest the literal meaning (immortality). Legacy is all fine and good, but it is no substitute for immortality. Furthe…

I agree intellectually, of course. But there’s something strange about watching my kid grow. They are so much like me. Sometimes it’s as if I can read their mind.

Re: Anti-mimetic tactics for living a counter-cultural life (2021)

#34

Post by jrflowers »

ip26 wrote: post #33
jrflowers wrote: post #13

I love this checklist of behaviors that I can follow to ensure that I’m not following any trends.

This list is a bit outdated, there are some newer better versions trending.

Is there a newsletter that provides updates on this? It’s disconcerting that I may be conforming unwittingly.

Re: Anti-mimetic tactics for living a counter-cultural life (2021)

#35

Post by mitt_romney_12 »

asplake wrote: post #4
ttctciyf wrote: post #3

> The sooner you kill this beast within yourself, the sooner you can get to the real work of creating something that the market itself will validate Highly anti-mimetic then, so long as you're committed to entrepreneuring and being validated by the market. Wait, what?

To be fair there was an “–or not” at the end of that quote, and I assume that the dash was for emphasis. Not clear what was meant by it though

I interpreted the "-or not" to mean the market might not validate your hypothesis, which still has the same problem of emphasizing market success

Re: Anti-mimetic tactics for living a counter-cultural life (2021)

#36

Post by jhawleypeters »

Since this is so longwinded, here’s a language-model-generated summary from kagi.com:

- Being anti-mimetic means having the freedom to counteract negative forms of mimetic desire that lead to unhealthy obsessions and never-satisfied striving.

- Anti-mimetic actions are a sign of contradiction to a culture that likes to float downstream.

- Scheduling activities at off-peak times can make experiences less stressful and more enjoyable.

- Reading books that challenge your views can broaden your perspective.

- Filtering feedback and only taking what you need helps you move forward, not live in the past.

- Investing in deep silence can help people embrace their purpose and reduce chasing bad ideas.

- Setting up an environment away from mimetically popular locations can help escape negative forces of mimesis.

- Speaking the truth, even when inconvenient, is foundational to living an anti-mimetic life.

- Developing the skill of de-escalation is important but rarely possessed.

- Discovering and living out your personal calling helps you navigate the mimetic noise of the world.

Looking over the points, it almost feels like the source material might have been generated by a language model in the first place. It’s a bunch of buzzwords and typical listicle-style advice tied to “anti-memisis” :/

Re: Anti-mimetic tactics for living a counter-cultural life (2021)

#37

Post by throwawaylinux »

amanaplanacanal wrote: post #17
xyzelement wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe off topic to what you meant but I find the "to forget we will die" an unfortunate frame. I find some of the best people are motivated by the knowledge that they will die and therefore try to make good and impactful use of their limited time here. I recently had a thought : I know a rabbi who has 11 children. If all of his children follow suit, he will get to meet 121 of his grandchildren in the next 20-30 years…

I think my feeling would be “The planet cannot possibly stand having 100 grandchildren for every current person. What have I done!?!?”

But we still should have more. Even many of the ruling class who have among their highest priorities the goal of shifting the blame and burden for climate change onto the commoners believe that birth rates are so low that even immigration is needed to increase populations in the most highly polluting per-capita countries. So if climate change is one of the greatest threats facing humanity, the population crisis must be even greater.

Re: Anti-mimetic tactics for living a counter-cultural life (2021)

#39

Post by mjfl »

> Each of us has the power, though, to make our experiences a bit less stressful and more enjoyable if we take advantage of the off-peak times when we have the freedom to do things on our own time. Some of my favorites include: going to the bar of a restaurant between 2–5pm when I’m the only person in the place and knocking out some work over an appetizer; going to museums (I live in DC, so there are a ton of great ones) during weekday mornings; and golfing at twilight where the rates are cheaper and there are 80% less people on the course (I also happen to think it’s the most beautiful time of the day to golf, anyway.

Doing work at a restaurant over appetizers at 3pm, very anti-mimetic. Apparently one of the keys of being anti-memetic is being 'already rich'.

Re: Anti-mimetic tactics for living a counter-cultural life (2021)

#40

Post by Animats »

ImaCake wrote: post #28
inconceivable wrote: post #5

i've heard ben hunt (epsilon theory) talk on various podcasts and he can spend literally 2 hours talking about something that can be said in one sentence. i'm sure he's very smart but all of his material is such a slog i don't even bother anymore. a lot of these ex-hedge fund podcast guys just love to hear themselves talk for hours on end. especially about how bad the current finance industry is, and of course when t…

For this article in particular the author could have cut the entire intro down to two sentences and then each of the 25 tips could be one or two sentences each. Nothing of value would have been lost, indeed, that's all I read of it. There's good ideas in here, but no one reads shit that isn't in dot points.

I read the whole thing, but yes, he doesn't have much to say that isn't obvious.

And how is "deep silence" different from regular silence? I've been in an anechoic chamber, and find it peaceful, but I don't think that's what he meant.

Useful wisdom that you don't hear much:

- Spend less than you earn, and life will be good to you. (Franklin).

- Do one less thing than you can do.

- Minimize your therbligs until it becomes automatic. (Heinlein)

- Clean as you go.

Read "The Maxims of Francois de La Rochefoucauld", which is cynically useful.

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