Thinking from first principles is hard. Not the logic, but the conclusions. If they're against the main narrative, you are going to be called a conspiracy theorist or weirdo or wack job. The social isolation and peer disapproval is the hardest part. This is where you need to let go of that desire to fit in and be well thought of by the normies. It's hard work, but worth it for the intellectual freedom.
The hard part is the start. You need clean premises. If you have bad assumptions it doesn't matter how smart you are.
Exactly!
conventional wisdom is not wisdom but rather status quo groupthink
And where you need to find/foster a community of like minded peers who are all willing to return to first principles and draw out conclusions that go against the zeitgeist. Not for the sake of an echo chamber, but for stability, freedom to openly discuss the ideas, accountability, and to spur one another on. In other words, having good friends. This is hard to do. But we are made for fellowship and broader peer disapproval is easier to handle when one has a solid, missionally-aligned, like minded community.
nostr:nprofile1qqs8k0mcqd6sw3h524qn5gslszt9am9knmes3uh268dgnnpv3yfwj6qpzamhxue69uhky6t5vdhkjmn9wgh8xmmrd9skctcppemhxue69uhkummn9ekx7mp0qyw8wumn8ghj7mn0wd68yttsw43zuum9d45hxmmv9ejx2a30y7ph8a I like your world view... Do you have a list of books that helped shape it?
i agree as a Bitcoiner and UFO believer 😅 🛸
“Whatever it is is not trying really trying to fool you, it’s trying to instruct you…. It’s a set of instructions for how to keep you job. You’re allowed to disagree, it’ll set the boundaries of the disagreement, it’ll set the topics of the disagreement… and you’re given a choice. You can choose to understand whatever you want and you can choose to say whatever you want. But if you say what you understand to be true, you can know what the consequences are. You may lose your marriage, you may lose your job, you may lose your friends…. you’re signing up for whatever Thanksgiving dinner we have planned for you. We are talking to your uncle, we are talking to your spouse.” -Eric Weinstein
This is why bitcoiners for Jesus are so interesting to me. Religion is not logical - its first principle is faith. Yet the intellectual honesty about that doesn't seem to follow, but only in this one realm. That's weird I think.
Made all the more difficult if one's income is at least somewhat reliant on fitting in and respectable social standing.
Thinking from first principles is valuable, but social isolation can lead to echo chambers where ideas go unchallenged (that's how cults are created). While its a good thing to stop trying to fit in, to me it's always worth engaging with the other side(s)