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How to Think for Yourself

paulgraham.com

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Re: How to Think for Yourself

#571

Post by ska »

hodgesrm wrote: post #370
amadeuspagel wrote: post #50

Like 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 any…

> 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. Some of the best recruiting advice I ever heard is that college degrees signal you can complete things. Most worthwhile objectives involve a fair amount of drudgery.

I think that is a far stronger signal from it than signalling conformism.

It suggest a degree of commitment and ability to navigate bureaucratic nonsense, having some social capital and family resources, etc. which are skills and attributes people value.

Re: How to Think for Yourself

#572

Post by galaxyLogic »

lowcodetv wrote: post #490
galaxyLogic wrote: post #448

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> hey, why is your reality the correct version of reality? Exactly, it is about the question "why?". Why are your reasons for believing something more plausible. But that is not the mindset of an emotionally charged person. Was the election rigged? A Trump supporter would say "Of course it was". But a judge in Pennsylvania had a good response to Giuliani (who was trying to argue it was): "... Calling an election unfa…

> Why are your reasons for believing something more plausible. But that is not the mindset of an emotionally charged person. Unfortunately, that is so. But usually, that person's motivation is to feel understood, valued, respected, and safe within the reality / status quo they've come to understand is their best guess. When you realize their specific fears, it makes it easier to empathize and work with them on seeing…

Good point. People are afraid of being wrong not only because they don't want to lose an argument, but because if they are wrong about one thing, it might turn out they are wrong about many things. Thinking that you understand the world gives you comfort.

Re: How to Think for Yourself

#573

Post by mcguire »

MetalGuru wrote: post #423
mcguire wrote: post #410

" Ditto for essayists. An essay that told people things they already knew would be boring. You have to tell them something new. " How come I know exactly where this essay is going? It is yet another "start-up founders are genetically, intellectually, and emotionally superior; the rest of the muggles are so envious." Does Paul think everyone except startup founders works on an assembly line? " You see this especially…

Nowhere in the essay does he argue that the three qualities of independent thinkers are exclusive to startup founders. You clearly feel some type of way about Paul Graham.

He picks out scientists, investors, essayists, and startup founders. (Hm. I wonder if he feels some particular closeness with those, specifically?)

While I know he is read by some number of the first three, I believe his primary audience is the last.

Re: How to Think for Yourself

#574

Post by mmkos »

x87678r wrote: post #404

Some of my biggest regrets are doing what I thought was best when I should have done what everyone else was doing. This ranges from from not buying an overpriced house 20 years ago, to not partying at college, to following some interesting but unpopular technology. Its not all bad doing things your own way but you have to be careful about straying too much.

This hit so close to home that I had to comment. I can completely relate. I tried to be different and chose a path that ended up wasting 3 years of my life with nothing to show for it (PhD, ended up dropping out). Then I joined a big company to work on a product with massive (legacy) codebase, where I ended up learning relatively little w.r.t end-to-end project development.

I feel as if I'd have been miles ahead if I had just done what most of my uni colleagues did instead of trying to somehow skip a step or two.

Re: How to Think for Yourself

#575

Post by closeparen »

pell wrote: post #569
closeparen wrote: post #543

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a pretty clear strain of personality that shows up early in life and is suspiciously correlated with becoming a programmer. It’s rare enough that most people don’t meet others who share it until they get past K12 and start to aggregate in self-selected universities and workplaces. It’s pronounced enough to be obvious to one’s peers and often causes some degree of social alienation. In the 1970s-90s the stere…

I think you're overlooking a lot of people who don't fit this description at all, yet also became "programmers".

I said there’s a correlation, not that it’s 1:1.

Re: How to Think for Yourself

#576

Post by ska »

lilactown wrote: post #567
Kranar wrote: post #515

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe that's conventional wisdom, but I simply disagree then. Just because everyone tells you not to buy a house doesn't mean you should buy one. I didn't buy my house because everyone told me not to, that would be incredibly stupid. In fact I would even go further and say that doing the opposite of what everyone tells you to do for the sake of being contrarian is worse than just going with the flow. You can listen t…

I am 99% sure ska is saying that "lots of people would have suggested to buy a house in 2009." I was not in a position to buy then, but IIRC the market had plummeted the previous year and was at an all-time low; if you were in a position to buy, it was a great time to do it.

Exactly. So Kranar's scenario I think boils down to "although conventional financial planning says it's a great time to buy a house, I thought through my own situation before doing it".

I can't argue with the logic but not sure what it contributes to the OP point.

Re: How to Think for Yourself

#578

Post by ip26 »

brlewis wrote: post #491
mcguire wrote: post #410

" Ditto for essayists. An essay that told people things they already knew would be boring. You have to tell them something new. " How come I know exactly where this essay is going? It is yet another "start-up founders are genetically, intellectually, and emotionally superior; the rest of the muggles are so envious." Does Paul think everyone except startup founders works on an assembly line? " You see this especially…

> How come I know exactly where this essay is going? This is the question I've been thinking as I've checked back in on comments here a few times this morning. Why do so many people "know" that this essay is all about aggrandizing pg's own intellect or that of startup founders, when it's almost entirely composed of two parts: (1) discussion on when independent thinking is and isn't valuable, and (2) advice on cultiva…

The more of them I read, the more it seems like they are chiefly a form of marketing for his accelerator, and all marketing should be approached with suspicion.

Re: How to Think for Yourself

#580

Post by [deleted] »

mcguire wrote: post #555
stingraycharles wrote: post #532

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the root cause is some “conflicting” mechanism where people associate pg’a writings with a following, which has been carefully cultivated. This article being about “how to not be a follower” in itself is at odds with that, and as such it entices heavy scrutinizing from the audience. In a way, it’s incredibly difficult to establish whether or not this article is conforming to existing ideas or not, when there’…

You cannot be a rebel if you don't wear the right uniform.

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