He started his essay w/ the example of a gay person. If you want to be outside of the herd in thought, it would aid you to be something alien to the majority. edit: you're right.
“Corn-Pone Opinions” by Mark Twain (1901)
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Re: “Corn-Pone Opinions” by Mark Twain (1901)
#32Here's what I have to say about that: That's pretty rich, coming from you, Paul Graham. You have All The Money, and All The Respect amongst your large and powerful peer group. Given your considerable wealth, there's nothing anybody can do to negatively impact your life in any meaningful way. Yet you continue to bang the same drum you've been banging for a decade now, at least. Time to tell us something we don't alrea…
It's generally a bad idea to assume that people whom you envy have no problems; it's just another form of dehumanization of the other.
Re: “Corn-Pone Opinions” by Mark Twain (1901)
#33He started his essay w/ the example of a gay person. If you want to be outside of the herd in thought, it would aid you to be something alien to the majority. edit: you're right.
In that time, gay did not mean homosexual, but happy. Twain was saying he was happy and impudent and satirical and delightful, characteristics you wouldn't necessarily expect a slave to have.
Re: “Corn-Pone Opinions” by Mark Twain (1901)
#34[deleted]
Re: “Corn-Pone Opinions” by Mark Twain (1901)
#35Mark Twain had no trouble thinking for himself. Paul Graham does the same kind of thing in his essays. Every great standup comedian in the world does it.
It's a skill that few practice, but thinking for yourself is not actually difficult. Most people have the basic reasoning skills required, they just never care enough to "rock the boat". And that's the real cause of conformity: apathy.
Re: “Corn-Pone Opinions” by Mark Twain (1901)
#36Now we all assume that this perfectly explains the people we disagree with. They are victims of conformity and group think. Thankfully we have reasoned opinions based in fact.
Re: “Corn-Pone Opinions” by Mark Twain (1901)
#37that it is born of the human being's natural yearning to stand well with his fellows and have their inspiring approval and praise -- a yearning which is commonly so strong and so insistent that it cannot be effectually resisted, and must have its way.
Actually I think it's the other way round. The force to conform doesn't come from seeking "approval and praise" but from avoiding the negative consequences of possibly being isolated and ostracised.
This is because where there's isolation there is disrespect and even violence from the peer group around the corner, apart from the negative effects it has on one's value on the "partnership market".
Re: “Corn-Pone Opinions” by Mark Twain (1901)
#38I agree with this sentiment in general, especially that our own feeling of self-worth can be determined to a fair degree by the opinions of people we surround ourselves with, and that this drives conformity. However, I'd add an important corollary, and one that is perhaps a bit less cynical :). Even if it's mostly true that you can only feel fulfilled when your actions and opinions are approved by your peers, you sti…
> you still get to chose who your peers are, and whose opinion you value.
It sounds like an easy way out, but I found it hard in practice. Not only it may be dangerous (filter bubble), but it also seems to be very similar to self-mind-hacking - which I found not to work at all. As long as I know I'm trying to trick my mind into believing something, it will refuse to do so. If it works at all, it must be on such a long timescale that you forget that it was all fake.
Re: “Corn-Pone Opinions” by Mark Twain (1901)
#39Mark Twain had no trouble thinking for himself. Paul Graham does the same kind of thing in his essays. Every great standup comedian in the world does it. It's a skill that few practice, but thinking for yourself is not actually difficult. Most people have the basic reasoning skills required, they just never care enough to "rock the boat". And that's the real cause of conformity: apathy.
I don't think it's apathy. I feel it's culture and economic considerations.
Society generally doesn't reward you for thinking outside the box, or outside the "outside the box" box. It rewards you for following the same rules, norms and patterns as everyone else does. Meanwhile, you have your spouse and kids to feed, house to keep warm, lots of work to do for little pay and an abusive boss that keeps you on your toes. Most people don't have time to think for themselves, even if it was rewarded, and it isn't.
Re: “Corn-Pone Opinions” by Mark Twain (1901)
#40Earlier quoted context omitted.
> In deciding to be exceptional, I'm thinking of the courageous act of separating yourself from the crowd when it's safer to conform, when faced with a binary decision between the two. I still think that this decision is one concerning becoming , rather than being , exceptional. That is, I think of being exceptional as the accumulated result of good decisions, rather than as a single (even lifelong) decision in its o…
The technologist, specifically the software developer (ie.. the typical HN reader) seems to often be a non-conformist, even contrarian. Why do you think that is? Cause we think we're smarter than everyone else, is my theory!
> The technologist, specifically the software developer (ie.. the typical HN reader) seems to often be a non-conformist, even contrarian. Why do you think that is?
I'm a mathematician, not a software developer, but I think that both professions train their practitioners to believe that the way to get good tools (or theorems) is to try to break them, and to keep only those that survive—a 'confrontational' approach that it is (perhaps too) easy to carry over into the rest of life. I won't deny that there is probably some arrogance in my contrarianism, too.