Oddbean new post about login | logout In everyday life, people hate to be the exception. They want to fit in. And yet, legends are told about the exceptions. Legends are born from the extraordinary. Men who led extraordinary military campaigns. Men who were born poor but built a dynasty. Women who fulfilled a man’s role out of necessity and became an outlier success. Men who created timeless art but were likely gay at a time when it was not allowed. The woke view tries to pull everything up or down to the average, regardless of merit. The fascistic view tries to suppress the exceptions and keep them down, while propping up those who haven’t earned it but who support the leader. The truly based view, however, invites everyone up toward excellence. Especially the exceptions.
Your first paragraph is completely at odds with my psychè.
.....see in my experience people who are based very much demand others to fit in with them. they are no better
Here's to the weird ones!
I'd have agreed 100% with you, Lyn for the first 40 years of my life. That is until I accidentally awoke from the dream of separation. The purpose of human life is to awaken. You work for ego death capital. I recommend you work on ego death itself. It's literally impossible to imagine the wonder at how things truly are. It's real.
Yes. Do you mean excellence as an expression of happiness, satisfaction and fulfilment?
As a barefoot running, raw vegan, I approve of this note.
A quote I love because it is so true. It also shares your sentiments .... “Here's to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They're not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can't do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.” ― Steve Jobs
This is only one lense to look the world through. Yes, there are geniuses here on this world and we can not deny & push them away. We want them to bring their gifts to this world. But there're billions of people who are not geniuses, nor want to be rebels. They just want to live a happy life. We can't deny their existence too.
@LynAlden are you familiar with Spiral Dynamics? It's a psychological development of individuals/communities. There are 8 levels to it (and new ones constantly emerging). We're transitioning from the 5th stage (the best description of it is capitalism, individualism, technology, materialism) to the 6th stage called Green Stage (equality, yoga, psychedelics, going back to nature, etc. ). It's a very natural process, as people burn out in the 5th stage and understand that's not where the happiness is, hence they look for something deeper and they find equality as the answer. The problem with it is - they DENY the 5th stage - individual greatness, awesome things that we got from it (amazing companies that were built) and that becomes a problem. What we should try to thrive to do is to go into the 7th stage - (integrated stage) The 7th stage value system includes all of the previous stages & tries to incorporate them into the society. In my belief Bitcoin and Bitcoiners will be getting us there. Bitcoin as a technology is very integrative (when you think of what a Bitcoin-maxi has to learn to become a Bitcoin maxi, like mining, game-theory, economics and much more). What we can not fall back to is to deny the 6th stage (all the trans movement, equality, etc.) because these people came to live in this way for some reason. For my part, I recently was triggered by one person who identified herself as queer. I was immediately looking at her as my enemy and that was a trigger to ask her to go for a coffee. When I talked to her for 2 hours and attentively listened to her - I came to appreciate her and her community of queer people. We're all people in the end of the day & we're trying to live happily on here.
I think most love being the exception if they perceive a net benefit to being one. Fear prevents a lot of people from trying. Truly based invites everyone up toward excellence. Why not stop there, it’s cleaner. Exceptions are exceptions because they rise further above everyone striving towards excellence anyway, no?
When you are at peace with yourself, and building your life and family with confidence, then you can recognize the achievements of others with genuine enthusiasm. You will benefit from their success, as they will from yours. That how cultures rise up.
Authenticity is impossible to clone