4 ms·

I don’t think it’s exclusive to entrepreneurs. A lot of people who happen to be successful, by their standards, assume it’s thanks to their superiority. You ca

I don’t think it’s exclusive to entrepreneurs. A lot of people who happen to be successful, by their standards, assume it’s thanks to their superiority. You can see that clearly in software engineering. There’s tons of people who consider themselves super smart and experts on world problems, just because someone is paying them $200k per year to move around buttons in css.

Analemma_ 6y ago
"As computer programmers, our formative intellectual experience is working with deterministic systems that have been designed by other human beings. These can be very complex, but the complexity is not the kind we find in the natural world. It is ultimately always tractable. Find the right abstractions, and the puzzle box opens before you. The feeling of competence, control and delight in discovering a clever twist that solves a difficult problem is what makes being a computer programmer sometimes enjoyable. But as anyone who’s worked with tech people knows, this intellectual background can also lead to arrogance. People who excel at software design become convinced that they have a unique ability to understand any kind of system at all, from first principles, without prior training, thanks to their superior powers of analysis. Success in the artificially constructed world of software design promotes a dangerous confidence." -- idlewords, emphasis mine
- clairity 6y ago
  yah, logic is an idealization--a linearization in a decidedly non-linear and stochastic universe--that works in a constructed context but not beyond it. it's how newtonian mechanics is so very useful at our scale but cannot fully explain ourselves, much less the world or the universe. understanding thiel requires understanding that he decidedly comes at issues with self-interest and ego first (and a bit paranoia) rather than priciples, despite the contrary image he tries to project.
davedx 6y ago
The stock market is a great way to show software developers how they’re absolutely not super rational first principle thinkers they may believe they are. (I have some experience of this :D)
the_only_law 6y ago
Reminds me of an HN comment I once read claiming something along the lines of how software engineers were in general smarter than other engineering disciplines.

Analemma_ 6y ago

"As computer programmers, our formative intellectual experience is working with deterministic systems that have been designed by other human beings. These can be very complex, but the complexity is not the kind we find in the natural world. It is ultimately always tractable. Find the right abstractions, and the puzzle box opens before you. The feeling of competence, control and delight in discovering a clever twist that solves a difficult problem is what makes being a computer programmer sometimes enjoyable. But as anyone who’s worked with tech people knows, this intellectual background can also lead to arrogance. People who excel at software design become convinced that they have a unique ability to understand any kind of system at all, from first principles, without prior training, thanks to their superior powers of analysis. Success in the artificially constructed world of software design promotes a dangerous confidence." -- idlewords, emphasis mine

clairity 6y ago
yah, logic is an idealization--a linearization in a decidedly non-linear and stochastic universe--that works in a constructed context but not beyond it. it's how newtonian mechanics is so very useful at our scale but cannot fully explain ourselves, much less the world or the universe. understanding thiel requires understanding that he decidedly comes at issues with self-interest and ego first (and a bit paranoia) rather than priciples, despite the contrary image he tries to project.

davedx 6y ago

The stock market is a great way to show software developers how they’re absolutely not super rational first principle thinkers they may believe they are. (I have some experience of this :D)

the_only_law 6y ago

Reminds me of an HN comment I once read claiming something along the lines of how software engineers were in general smarter than other engineering disciplines.