Delusion, ignorance, egotism, purism, curiosity? Is this really such a dark, dystopian world for everybody attempting startups out there?? “Hey, teachers, leave those kids alone!” (cit.)
How to Think for Yourself
41–50 of 874 posts
Re: How to Think for Yourself
#42If you have an idea and nobody else is doing it, odds are not that you had a good idea; instead it is probably a bad idea that many others have had and failed at. When you have a seemingly original idea figure out who else had it and ask why they failed. That will give you insight into what you need to do better. Sometimes you will realize that it was a bad idea, other times you will know what to change to make it wo…
There is a big space of ideas of indeterminate value in between the "good" and "bad" poles.
Was creating Uber a good idea? The company has grown a lot, but AFAIK is still not profitable; the jury is out on this one.
In some cases, the answer is to try.
Re: How to Think for Yourself
#43It is surely a mere coincidence that every time PG makes up some category of elite people he finds himself right in the middle of it.
I mean, the other way to look at it is that he's writing about what he knows, or at least about his own experience/perspective?
Better that than trying to write about something he knows nothing about..
p.s. I'm not defending him here, I'm generally not a fan of pg, but I think there's a less narcissistic possibility here. ;)
Re: How to Think for Yourself
#44The distinction between independent-mindedness and conventional-mindedness is captured more correctly I think by a trait called politeness as defined here https://www.researchgate.net/publication/5863998_Between_Fac... Independent-mindness would be similar to low politeness (coupled with high openness, but I'll ignore that for now), and those people would be more likely to be like this than not: * Make enemies. * Opp…
I think it's quite tragic that you got downvoted in a thread about independent thinking. Seriously people, you might disagree with his point, but it's very independent, has a lot of substance compared to all other comments, provides links.
Probably was to independent for some?
Re: How to Think for Yourself
#45The decrease of independent minded as an organisation grows seems an almost universal phenomenon. It happens to startups yes, but also to forums, bands, fashions, the internet, games, religions, politics, etc. Basically anything new will target independent minded people, and anything successful will target conventional people. It's sad for the independent minded, but is there anything that can be done about this ?
"anything successful will target conventional people"
Plenty of successful products are useful for both. E-mail, smartphone, Covid vaccine.
PG's idea that outsourcing more conventional activities such as advertisements and PR may preserve the creative core of the company is interesting at least.
Re: How to Think for Yourself
#46> 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 finding a specific passage to pin it on.
I think this goes both ways: those that found something they liked intensely, but had a hard time finding a specific passage / point to pin it on could also be aggressively conventionally minded.
Both reactions stem from letting your subconscious decide your logical conclusion rather than arrive at that conclusion through skeptical, rigorous observation and analysis.
Re: How to Think for Yourself
#47It is surely a mere coincidence that every time PG makes up some category of elite people he finds himself right in the middle of it.
Survivorship bias: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivorship_bias
Re: How to Think for Yourself
#48It is surely a mere coincidence that every time PG makes up some category of elite people he finds himself right in the middle of it.
"There may even be a phenomenon like Dunning-Kruger at work..."
His lack of self awareness is incredibly impressive. I'm almost envious.
Re: How to Think for Yourself
#49It is surely a mere coincidence that every time PG makes up some category of elite people he finds himself right in the middle of it.
Everyone is the hero in their own story. Don't know where i got it from. I usually use it as a reminder that even evil people like Hitler consider themselves as the good hero. Maybe in difficult circumstances. I don't want to compare PG to Hitler though.
It's definitely a good thing to remember.
Not to be sociopathic, but try to be the hero of your own story as well. Focusing on the things you do right and not remunerating on your mistakes it's a key part of mental wellness.
Re: How to Think for Yourself
#50Like many of pg's essays there's an unqualified glorification of being independent. For example the suggestion that hiring conformist people is something that just happens. It seems more likely that companies more or less consciously hire such people, because a company where everyone thinks independently would be one where everyone wants to do something different, and nothing would get done, no one could agree on anything.
Bryan Caplan in his book The Case Against Education suggests that employers value college degrees partly as a signal of conformism, and that that's the reason college is so hard to replace.
(His theory is the college signals three things: Intelligence, discipline and conformism. It would be easy to signal first two things in some other way, but the very fact that you think you know better how to signal them proves that you're some kind of smartass who's inevitably going to cause trouble.)