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How to Think for Yourself

paulgraham.com

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231–240 of 874 posts

Re: How to Think for Yourself

#231

Post by fractionalhare »

iaml wrote: post #229
sundarurfriend wrote: post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> PG sure has been on a kick about how brilliant of an independent thinker he is in a sea of conformity. If your first reaction reading this essay is "PG is trying to big himself up as an independent thinker", that tells me more about your attitude and mental state than about PG. Forgive the cliche, but "great minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events, small minds discuss people" is a decent heuristic, with g…

"great minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events, small minds discuss people" is a quote that discusses people

I don't really agree with the OP, but that's not true. It's a quote which discusses people as a category in the abstract, which is to say it discusses the idea of people and their behavior. As much as I'd like to dunk on the quote like this, it is consistent :)

My interpretation of the quote has always been that discussing people means something along the lines of gossip, i.e. specific people. That being said I think there's a clear difference between simple gossip and critical discussion of others, which can be very intellectually elevated.

Re: How to Think for Yourself

#232

Post by mewpmewp2 »

johnnujler wrote: post #202

Why would you want to talk about how each individual is multi-faceted, complex, and full of contradictory beliefs when you can conveniently categorize them into conventional and independent? Ah, I know the answer: because hackers come in only one flavor: independent; and everyone else who doesn't fit the description is a conventional thinker. The level of (apparent) profundity(?) in these essays and the amount of peo…

He specifically said it is a spectrum, not a category and of course you can be more of an independent thinker in certain categories and more conventional in others.

Re: How to Think for Yourself

#233

Post by dicytea »

goto11 wrote: post #88

Fun observation that everybody in this community consider it positive to be "independent minded". But the author seem to fall into the same trap at the end: When I wrote "The Four Quadrants of Conformism" I expected a firestorm of rage from the aggressively conventional-minded, but in fact it was quite muted. They sensed that there was something about the essay that they disliked intensely, but they had a hard time f…

"If they're angry, then I'm right. But if they're not angry, then they're actually secretly angry and I'm still right."

It's so funny honestly.

Re: How to Think for Yourself

#235

Post by zug_zug »

johnnujler wrote: post #202

Why would you want to talk about how each individual is multi-faceted, complex, and full of contradictory beliefs when you can conveniently categorize them into conventional and independent? Ah, I know the answer: because hackers come in only one flavor: independent; and everyone else who doesn't fit the description is a conventional thinker. The level of (apparent) profundity(?) in these essays and the amount of peo…

I think if he weren't famous, PG's essays wouldn't get much reverence. But as an icon for he's a great figure. He uses his social status points to offer messages of optimism, self-improvement, hope for rebels that is socially important and feels good.

The fact that we tear him down so much is testament to the regard we hold him in. I'm sure all of us who poke at his logic could just as easily shred the Pope, the Dalai Lama, the president...

Re: How to Think for Yourself

#236

Post by cryptica »

I think the biggest problem we have today is that people have become so out of touch with themselves and their own intrinsic needs that they ended up resorting to simply wanting what other people want.

We can blame advertising. Successful advertising is all about inducing as many people as possible to conform to the same imagery.

Re: How to Think for Yourself

#237

Post by rm445 »

losvedir wrote: post #226

> You have to do something that sounds to most other people like a bad idea, but that you know isn't — like writing software for a tiny computer used by a few thousand hobbyists, or starting a site to let people rent airbeds on strangers' floors. He's talking about airbnb here, but what's the other company?

Microsoft maybe?

Re: How to Think for Yourself

#238

Post by escape_goat »

sundarurfriend wrote: post #217
baron_harkonnen wrote: post #131

PG sure has been on a kick about how brilliant of an independent thinker he is in a sea of conformity. It's clear in all of his writing that he's perpetually beating around the bush about some current itch he has, I wish he would just come out and say it with out pretending to be a deep thinker: > Do you want to do the kind of work where you can only win by thinking differently from everyone else? I mean, taken outsi…

> PG sure has been on a kick about how brilliant of an independent thinker he is in a sea of conformity. If your first reaction reading this essay is "PG is trying to big himself up as an independent thinker", that tells me more about your attitude and mental state than about PG. Forgive the cliche, but "great minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events, small minds discuss people" is a decent heuristic, with g…

If you initiate a public dialogue with someone specifically for the purpose of making a show of rejecting the possibility of engaging in any dialogue with them, forgiveness of clichés is IMO a big ask.

Re: How to Think for Yourself

#239

Post by soneca »

losvedir wrote: post #226

> You have to do something that sounds to most other people like a bad idea, but that you know isn't — like writing software for a tiny computer used by a few thousand hobbyists, or starting a site to let people rent airbeds on strangers' floors. He's talking about airbnb here, but what's the other company?

I believe Microsoft, it started when personal computers were just a niche hobby.

Re: How to Think for Yourself

#240

Post by tchaffee »

baron_harkonnen wrote: post #131

PG sure has been on a kick about how brilliant of an independent thinker he is in a sea of conformity. It's clear in all of his writing that he's perpetually beating around the bush about some current itch he has, I wish he would just come out and say it with out pretending to be a deep thinker: > Do you want to do the kind of work where you can only win by thinking differently from everyone else? I mean, taken outsi…

> PG sure has been on a kick about how brilliant of an independent thinker he is in a sea of conformity.

The feeling I get essay after essay is that he's struggling to stay relevant. It's kind of sad to watch tbh.

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