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Keep Your Identity Small

paulgraham.com

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Re: Keep Your Identity Small

#261

Post by ChetanC »

Paul, brilliant essay. You've eloquently put forward a solid argument about why Foxes are better than Hedgehogs (see: http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2005/12/05/051205crbo_books...). People's predictive ability (and judgment) seem to diminish proportional to the strength of their belief in some ideology.

Avoiding identifying too much with any worldview seems to be the best path to wisdom. A good resource is Berkeley academic Philip Tetlock's work in this field (http://fora.tv/2007/01/26/Why_Foxes_Are_Better_Forecasters_T...).

Chetan Chawla (chetanchawla@gmail.com)

Re: Keep Your Identity Small

#262

Post by cjfsyntropy »

I think a highly effective alternative to restraint in identity is a deep and comprehensive appreciation for all identities. That is, the interest, willingness, and passion to accommodate all relevant identities. Karen Armstrong calls this "compassion". I submit it would be healthier for discussion to deeply and compassionately embrace otherness rather than to be identity agnostics.

I concur that noncompassionate identity can poison a discussion.

Re: Keep Your Identity Small

#263

Post by PeterWhittaker »

In the early '90s there was a trend to something called "ego-less programming". The idea was to leave your ego at the door when coding, and definitely when doing a code review, thereby removing personality - and personality insult or injury - from questions of code quality. As a then-techie who'd attended a review or two, this struck me as a very good idea.

What you describe as "identity" may be better described as "ego". For most of us, the ego so dominates that the two are indistinguishable: Ego is who we are, ego promotes and defends our identity.

Now, without going all new age on you, think of a moment when your ego has been totallly in control (any episode of rage, be it road or code, is likely a good choice). Now think of how, on your better days, you don't consider that person to be you. Of course it wasn't, it was your ego taking control.

Keeping your identity small is one approach, but perhaps a more fulfilling one is to manage your ego. Recognize it as but one of your tools for personal expression and defense and bring it out only when necessary.

Many of us "identify" with a great many things and this makes life rich. Keeping your identity small may be impoverishing.

Consider discussions on religion or politics you've had with people who seem particularly wise or calm. They are probably among the best and most insightful discussions you've had. And I will bet that the wise person has strongly held beliefs, beliefs that are strongly part of their identity. But they manage their ego: They can consider all sides, and even update their position, because they have separated ego - and externally manifested phenomenom - from identity, an internal state.

(I experienced the ego-less programming trend at Bell-Northern Research, aka BNR, then the research arm of Northern Telecom, now Nortel. I don't know whether it was BNR-specific, Telecom-generic or industry wide. Interestingly, only techies and techie management really seemed to get it. Folks in soft disciplines thought having ego bound with code was necessary to take pride in one's work.)

Re: Keep Your Identity Small

#264

Post by freeobject »

Many identities give out higher level of comprehension. You could have more identities and keep them as resources to use instead of as labels to show off. But, that's rare, most people don't have that ablility to learn as much as possible. So in common, sticking on fewer identities normally prevails.

Re: Keep Your Identity Small

#266

Post by keefe »

DaniFong wrote: post #74

One trouble with following this line of reasoning to its limits is simply that one doesn't have an endless supply of mental energy. It is not merely easier to mark something about yourself as known and solid, and move on; it also frees cycles for other things. One simply can't go about life questioning every action in terms of its relationship to values which you are supposed to figure out. It's too hard. So, perhaps…

The only thing I feel I can truly lock down is this : I don't know. Nothing can truly be trusted from whether there is any "me" to survive death all the way down to the accuracy of memory and the individual perceptions of my senses. Some more fundamental assumptions are more solid than others - such as the assumption that what I perceive through my senses reflects an objective reality that you also perceive through your senses. I only want to lock down a particular assumption in the context of solving a particular problem and only so far as empirical evidence supports. I want to mark down the appropriate set of assumptions (with perhaps a common base that is "identity") as known and solid then attempt to solve my problem and move on or revisit assumptions as required. So, my actions and values are in a constant state of doubt and while certain of my base beliefs seem very solid now - so did rejected beliefs of yesterday. This is my only core belief, that it is best to keep an empty mind, a mind free of preconceptions making minimal operational assumptions based only on empirical evidence (as time allows). I tend to think identification is overcompensation - people really NEED their religion to be correct because of the fear of the great unknown, death.

Re: Keep Your Identity Small

#267

Post by acidcoal »

In a slight out of context side;It is Dilemma;Your Expertise tend to Identify You and tend to become your Identity.What Paul is saying to go beyond, and still have expertise and not been identfied by them;In real world, i see it as a challenge.
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