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How to Think for Yourself

paulgraham.com

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Re: How to Think for Yourself

#801

Post by __float »

geomark wrote: post #799
__float wrote: post #795

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps “safe spaces” are a lofty goal to allow students to focus on intellectual exploration rather than devoting a lot of mental energy to the slow drip of “microaggressions”. It sounds like you might be in one of the “niche conformists” pg describes.

Haha. I'm asking for suggestions of unis where I can still be challenged and even offended, and someone comes along with some psycho babble about me being a conformist of some sort. If I put on my psycho babble hat I might think they spent too much time in one of those safe spaces.

If you think the concept of a safe space is at odds with being challenged then you are severely mistaken. When is the last time you were at a university? Your vaguely inflammatory comments suggest it’s been a while...

Re: How to Think for Yourself

#802

Post by ryeguy_24 »

rdslw wrote: post #794
ryeguy_24 wrote: post #615

Am I the only one is getting pretty bored of "formula for success" content? This essay and other's like it, without evidence or data, implies that some of us know the formula for success. I get it, the things that change convention are unconventional at first. This is the definition of unconventional. I agree with the general vector of his essay but this is just boring to me. Here is my formula for success (in case a…

It is even worse. This article is (yet another) attemp to romanticize and put to pedestal 'startup with a novel idea'. It is worth to mention that trying to trick/persuade/convince (choose freely) thousands (literaly) of people to go this path, benefits tremendously ycombinator - not the persuaded founders. Because for YC if only few are (hugely) successfull they win. Not so for the other thousands. The fact that few…

I agree with you entirely. To add to your point, we readers aren’t an an average of a simulation. We are a single path. So, this advice works for the those that reap benefits of the average but it may not be the advice suited for individuals.

“Jump off a cliff because statistically, one of you may fly”.

Re: How to Think for Yourself

#803

Post by sxzxs »

The comments I've read have been really strongly worded either for or against the motif of this article. All in all I thought this essay was a nice albeit not too deep train of thought through kinds of thinking - not anything worth getting into fisticuffs over.

Yet some comments make me feel like they expect, with the threat of harsh criticism, uber-deep and profoundly insightful content from PG on a highly consistent basis. Maybe it's the phenomenon where wider audiences give rise to (or amplify) polarizing views.

Re: How to Think for Yourself

#804

Post by anovikov »

rdslw wrote: post #794
ryeguy_24 wrote: post #615

Am I the only one is getting pretty bored of "formula for success" content? This essay and other's like it, without evidence or data, implies that some of us know the formula for success. I get it, the things that change convention are unconventional at first. This is the definition of unconventional. I agree with the general vector of his essay but this is just boring to me. Here is my formula for success (in case a…

It is even worse. This article is (yet another) attemp to romanticize and put to pedestal 'startup with a novel idea'. It is worth to mention that trying to trick/persuade/convince (choose freely) thousands (literaly) of people to go this path, benefits tremendously ycombinator - not the persuaded founders. Because for YC if only few are (hugely) successfull they win. Not so for the other thousands. The fact that few…

But what is the problem for those for who it doesn't work? How much do they get to lose? If they don't get accepted to the YC, they lose very little and it's just a short detour in their lives, certainly not the most boring or frustrating one, something to remember. If they get accepted to the YC, they clearly win vs the average folk because they get to know so many influential people and see how the world-class stuff gets done.

For example, i've been doing custom development for more than 20 years, made several million in the process, built over 130 project and i still don't have a slightest idea of how it's done - because every single of my client's projects failed - and i would be more than delighted to see how projects succeed first-hand even if the project wasn't mine.

Re: How to Think for Yourself

#805

Post by FabHK »

b0rsuk wrote: post #775
ardit33 wrote: post #629

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know, but I rather hear sporting/fitness advice from someone that won NBA finals, or the soccer World Cup, then just some random loser. The winner at least can tell you how they did succeed personally, even if they have no comprehensive studies with data. On the other hand, you are just a random guy from the internet, and offering advice with no data at all. You might be broke and posting from your mom's base…

Say Hellooo to survivorship bias, then!! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivorship_bias You're throwing half of the information away. You need to know not just what to do, but also what not to do. Losers can teach you about mistakes, injuries etc.

Obligatory xkcd:

https://xkcd.com/1827/

Re: How to Think for Yourself

#806

Post by barry-cotter »

LeonB wrote: post #199
killtimeatwork wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I also often notice a self-serving conclusion that you should quit your comfy corporate job (and perhaps create a startup?). In this particular essay, it's close to the bottom: "Is there a way to cultivate curiosity? To start with, you want to avoid situations that suppress it. How much does the work you're currently doing engage your curiosity? If the answer is "not much," maybe you should change something."

Yes, conveniently aligns with self-interest. Pointing out middle managers are necessarily conformist is also convenient. Re Curiosity: Darwin spent decades studying barnacles.

> When I meet someone who knows a lot about something unusual (which includes practically everyone, if you dig deep enough), I try to learn what they know that other people don't.

Re: How to Think for Yourself

#807

Post by barry-cotter »

juped wrote: post #132
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…

And certainly, Graham's YC became mostly a finishing school for elite-college grads. The nonconformism talk is easier than the walk.

Really? A majority of YC founders are Ivy League or equivalent graduates? Where do you get your data on that?

Re: How to Think for Yourself

#808

Post by commentrix »

What's interesting is all the sheep coming to say, "Hey, actually I'm an individual!" even tho 1000-ands of times they've shat on individuals and celebrated the collective, even the collective lynching of individuals that were too "divergent" for their fickle and arbitrary collective tastes.

Now, when an "authority" a "leader of a pack" shows up and says "Individual think good", the sheep bleat ever louder, "me good", "no cull".

So ridiculous. You're all (mostly) sheep. Sheep in your condemnation of this celebration of individuality, sheep in the illogic of it, given that you've merrily discarded and excluded individuality for the thrill of "collective righteousness", now, in collective unison you've come to proclaim, either or any of:

- I am individual, I peace

- I am sheep-dividual hybrid but that smart, I peace

- PG is wrong on principle, therefore sheep good, I peace

You are all (commenters against, here) the first morons to leap at passing criticism on anything divergent from your groupthink, embracing this culture of "criticism" as a sacred ritual, but when passed against you, it is the end of the world.

This must evoke the deep unresolved insecurity at the sheep: they know they surrendered that tiny individual voice inside, and they know, on some level, that's wrong, but they need to cover that up with everything they've got, to justify and feed their sense of safety in the comfort of the herd.

Good luck to you, sheep all!

Keep telling yourself, inside, individual good, bad me give it up, and outside, individual bad, good me sheep member. I think you all should accept your duality and just get on with it, and not feel threatened by seeing the realization in other individuals of a mirror (to you) of your own unrealized individuality. Or just accept your whole sheepness, if that's what you are. Accept this paradox and just fully give up your baggage about not being individual "enough", and embrace the collective. Then you will not be so threatened and insecure when someone talks of individuality, you will know, the superiority, of the hoard! "Your individuality shall be merged into our own."

I don't care that y'all sheep. I want you to be sheep. Get out of my way. Stay outta my way. Get away from me. You're disgusting with your crazy illogical groupthink. You'll never understand the free thinkers, so don't try to impose just stay away. I want you to be secure in your collectivism. Because then you won't be so prone to attack the individuals that cross your paths. Be secure. Be confident. I don't care that it seems wrong or illogical to me. There's value in the collective. IF YOU ARE SHEEP, FUCKING EMBRACE IT. Yes, sheep are cowards, but there's literally gathousands of you, so just fucking EMBRACE IT. Surrender to your sheepness, and find, please, your own version of transcendent bliss, so we can all of us get back to being ourselves without interfering in others through triggered projected insecurities sparked from difference. Just be your fucking sheepself, and enjoy it.

You see me outside the herd? Just ignore. Go back to eating grass, and get full belly and feel good. OK?

Re: How to Think for Yourself

#809

Post by Agreed99 »

ryeguy_24 wrote: post #802
rdslw wrote: post #794

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is even worse. This article is (yet another) attemp to romanticize and put to pedestal 'startup with a novel idea'. It is worth to mention that trying to trick/persuade/convince (choose freely) thousands (literaly) of people to go this path, benefits tremendously ycombinator - not the persuaded founders. Because for YC if only few are (hugely) successfull they win. Not so for the other thousands. The fact that few…

I agree with you entirely. To add to your point, we readers aren’t an an average of a simulation. We are a single path. So, this advice works for the those that reap benefits of the average but it may not be the advice suited for individuals. “Jump off a cliff because statistically, one of you may fly”.

It’s a generational Ponzi scheme.

We buy in as they say, they never have to pay out (in taxes). New wealth is generated by newcomers buying in (which conveniently keeps their wealth up).

In the end we get left with the environmental cleanup bill.

I have no respect left for western society. Its social experts outside science are average people acting emotionally.

It’s no different to me than Sky wizard missionaries generating titillating story to grift off workers they came across. Beamed into our homes now. Grifters don’t even need to do more than show up on set.

Businessmen to me are the final form of priests or kings. Story mode characters finely tuning a top-down hierarchy story in which they insert themselves near the top, but never do much but ramble inconsistency.

Re: How to Think for Yourself

#810

Post by webdev93 »

username90 wrote: post #790
polote wrote: post #701

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What you are getting from HN at your current age with your experience, is not the same that what your young self would have gotten from the same content

I learned that working at Google pays a ton and not that hard to get in there. So I learned to code and got a job at Google and made a lot of money thanks to HN. My life got a lot easier thanks to that. I feel the value of HN is greatly reduced once you are more familiar with the industry. But to an outsider this site is gold.

How is it not hard to get into Google? Sounds more like survivorship bias.
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