Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

How to Think for Yourself

paulgraham.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

601–610 of 874 posts

Re: How to Think for Yourself

#601

Post by [deleted] »

PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #593
crdrost wrote: post #509

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, there's nature-nurture stuff going on, but there is also a strange inability to grapple with context shifts. What is “conventional” is changing, and an idea which seemed “independent” is no longer. This is why Alan Kay’s talks about the same are nicer. He is explicit about “you find yourself in a pink world surrounded by pink things and then you have a blue thought which could take you out of the plane of your…

> are you more interested operationally in getting your tasks for today done, or are you more interested in an idea for its own sake even if it doesn't have pragmatic function This is such a discriminatory way of thinking. For some of us, our "tasks for the day" are full of interest, complexities and possibilities. For a lot of us, our "tasks for the day" are repetitive, prescribed and uninteresting. Please find a wa…

[deleted]

Re: How to Think for Yourself

#602

Post by belval »

acalzycalzy wrote: post #545
WhompingWindows wrote: post #467

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You regret not partying at college? My biggest regret from college is binge drinking and staying up too late to basically faff around chasing frivolous pleasure. If I had drank half as much and partied half as much, I'd have gotten much more accomplished.

“I’d have gotten much more accomplished” Not really. You say that now as if your non partying time would have been perfectly spent toward a goal of bettering yourself. In actuality you probably would have just putzed around in your dorm not doing anything that would have impacted your professional life trajectory.

Exactly, it's like the common "wow you spent 250 hours on that game, that would be 250 * hourly salary you could've made!".

Yes, but actually no. Forcing yourself to be productive usually has diminishing returns after a while.

Re: How to Think for Yourself

#603

Post by toyg »

selestify wrote: post #350
toyg wrote: post #318

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, stereotypes are a bitch. BUT - if one gets stereotyped enough, after a while s/he’s probably developed some coping mechanism to actually leverage it into an advantage (I know I do). So don’t feel too bad - it might well be that the guy uses that sort of conversation precisely to gauge his audience. (It makes a lot of sense that pro athletes are in gaming, btw: it’s competitive and it’s something that can be don…

How do you leverage your stereotypes? I assume the stereotypes you leverage are the positive ones?

You can leverage the negative ones too. They can be used to let people underestimate you, gaining the element of surprise at later stage; or to look more threatening than you actually are.

Re: How to Think for Yourself

#604

Post by Animats »

xgk wrote: post #530
Animats wrote: post #432

The physical separation of Lockheed's Skunk Works may have had this as a side benefit. That mindset produced the big corporate labs of the 1950s to 1970s - Bell Labs, Xerox PARC, IBM Research, Sarnoff Labs, the Department of Energy labs, the NASA centers, etc. They got impressive results. But in time, they stagnated, working hard on the wrong problems. You have to have a well defined goal to make that work. Of course…

On one side ... On the other side ... Only one of those sides has children in substantial numbers, so this polarity will sort itself out over longer time scales. As somebody living next to a primary school in a very progressive city I already see this in a big way!

Only one of those sides has children in substantial numbers

Which one?

Re: How to Think for Yourself

#605

Post by dang »

mcguire wrote: post #420
RickHull wrote: post #214

For those railing against this essay, who feel that PG is fluffing himself up and patting himself on the back like a nerdy middleschooler -- you've missed the big point, badly. PG writes unapologetically, directly, and simply, and this may pattern match to a naive middleschooler, but you are letting your base instincts cover up the fact that PG is wise, has earned his stripes, and is sharing his wisdom, unapologetica…

" He's writing to and for people like him, trying to help them put words and clear thought to vague understandings and apprehensions they've been wrestling with. " In other words, the conventionally unconventional? Those who are independent, but only in the right way?

People of similar temperament who have similar challenges and are perhaps younger? What's wrong with that? I don't see the need to be so cynical.

Re: How to Think for Yourself

#606

Post by cactus2093 »

vasilipupkin wrote: post #600

“if a lot of other people make the same prediction, the stock price will already reflect it, and there's no room to make money“ This is wrong. You make money when you invest in public stocks as compensation for the risk you take. You don’t need to be better than others at predicting to make money. You do if you want to make excess money, money above the level that compensates for risk.

I think this is implied because he's talking about people that trade stocks for a living. Leaving money in a an index that tracks the overall market doesn't really count as a full-time trader job.

Re: How to Think for Yourself

#607

Post by darkerside »

closeparen wrote: post #511
darkerside wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While this activity can be useful, I think it is simultaneously at the root of many of our social problems today. You cannot ask this question about literally everything. Well, you can, but you'll end up questioning things that are universally accepted (Which way is North? Is gasoline flammable?). So naturally you dial it back, and you ask questions only about things that seem wrong, or that you particularly care abo…

What’s happening in our culture seems more like a case of several competing conventions, split on tribal lines, rather than individuals thinking their way to unique positions.

Seems like a combination of the two to me

Re: How to Think for Yourself

#608

Post by vasilipupkin »

cactus2093 wrote: post #606
vasilipupkin wrote: post #600

“if a lot of other people make the same prediction, the stock price will already reflect it, and there's no room to make money“ This is wrong. You make money when you invest in public stocks as compensation for the risk you take. You don’t need to be better than others at predicting to make money. You do if you want to make excess money, money above the level that compensates for risk.

I think this is implied because he's talking about people that trade stocks for a living. Leaving money in a an index that tracks the overall market doesn't really count as a full-time trader job.

I don’t think it’s implied because it’s not even true for professional public market investors. They can make money by giving customers ways to take risk, not necessarily through superior predictions.

Re: How to Think for Yourself

#609

Post by GeorgeTirebiter »

epsilonclose wrote: post #291
RickHull wrote: post #281

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ha, you jest, but you bring up a subtle point. There are degrees and dimensions of similarity. For example, two people who uphold a principle of freedom of speech may nonetheless completely disagree on any particular issue. But they are very similar in an important way. Do you value independent thinking? If so, what part of the article did you most disagree with?

Do independent thinkers read essays that tell them how to think independently? The irony may have been intentional on the author's part, but I still won't read the essay. Bad juju.

I think there's more to it than that. Because conformity, especially social conformity among one's peers, is rampant - defenses need to be shored up to guard against this constant push toward conformity. Because all of us are caught up in our lives, it's helpful to take a moment, Read PG's latest, and reflect if has anything worthwhile for you. I like the Grateful Dead's Box of Rain: "Believe if you need it, or leave it if you dare."

Re: How to Think for Yourself

#610

Post by [deleted] »

vasilipupkin wrote: post #600

“if a lot of other people make the same prediction, the stock price will already reflect it, and there's no room to make money“ This is wrong. You make money when you invest in public stocks as compensation for the risk you take. You don’t need to be better than others at predicting to make money. You do if you want to make excess money, money above the level that compensates for risk.

[deleted]
Post reply on HN