3 ms·

Dismissal of any hint of personal agency as "truly insane" is the only truly insane thing here.

• vincent-toups 7y ago
  I think its a rather rank misinterpretation of my comment to suggest that I believe there is no personal agency whatsoever. Obviously a great many of the thing things that happen to a person are causally related to their choices. What is absurd is the believe that _everything_ is related to your own actions and thus that you deserve all the good and or bad that comes your way. What bugs me about the quote is that its a perversion of a sort of stoicism towards which I am much more positively disposed. But the stoic is not so silly as to believe they are responsible for everything that happens to them. They believe they are responsible for _responding_ to it and ultimately not responsible for where it comes from. A true stoic accepts material success and failure with the same attitude: I must make the most of this situation to do good. That is a respectable attitude, though it perhaps undersells our capacity to actually change the world. This attitude is just intellectual laziness and quite self serving as well.
  • jacquesm 7y ago
    Pretty common in people of high net worth. After all, if it wasn't personal agency that got them all that wealth then why did it happen? The answer is uncomfortable and so it gets muted by a feel-good thought.
• asveikau 7y ago
  I think people (including me) have the biggest problem with taking credit for success. There is usually a lot of luck involved, factors larger than yourself, and support from other people. Many talented and deserving people, whose abilities and potential may very well exceed our own, don't see success. So when you do find it, stay humble.