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Investing might be an area where you can profit from being the way you are. I am very similar, having read way over 1k books in the last ten years or so, on a

by leobg 5y ago

Investing might be an area where you can profit from being the way you are. I am very similar, having read way over 1k books in the last ten years or so, on a perversely wide array of subjects. I’ve also done everything from tinkering with Arduinos all the way to marriage counseling. But I quickly get bored and move on to the next field. An early disciple of CG Jung, Marie Louise von Franz, wrote that the life of our personality type looks like a never ending track of fields sown but never reaped. But while you may never stay long enough on a field to reap its fruit, what you do reap is a very interconnected, multidisciplinary way of understanding the world, which comes to you not so much in the form of explicit knowledge but in the form of a very special “intuition”. That isn’t to say that you are infallible. In fact, you should always be careful to question that intuition and to try to make as much of it as possible explicit, even just to yourself. But if you do that, you have a good chance of being quite successful with a Peter Thiel style of investing. Just always keep in mind your three biggest enemies: The mimetic reflex of wanting to follow the herd and get approval from others. The seductive illusion of superiority or infallibility. And the general tendency of wanting to be right, and of fooling yourself.

istinetz 5y ago
>what you do reap is a very interconnected, multidisciplinary way of understanding the world, which comes to you not so much in the form of explicit knowledge but in the form of a very special “intuition”. What is the value of that, though? When it comes to social sciences, everyone believes they have a special intuition or a sense about how the world works. It's impossible to distinguish who actually does, and who is self-delusional. You cannot even be certain for yourself. In tech, in contrast, you can build a product that can prove you are valuable, despite being an un-credentialed autodidact. I can think of only a few paths that can really realize the value of genuine brilliance of this type: 1) With your special intuition of how the world works, predict the course of society and make money off of that. That can be difficult, though, since nobody is going to bankroll you, and this would also require knowledge of finance. 1.1) Gamble on the nascent event markets instead. Not sure if they are going to exist in the long term, though. 2) Write compelling fiction. However, if your conclusions about society are true, but unintuitive to the general public, it's going to be tricky to convince them you're right, and they're wrong. 3) Become political analyst/pundit/substack writer. Same downsides as above. 4) Identify key trends in society and start a business in a field that is likely to dramatically explode. This strategy requires tech or business skills, and is high variability.
Himanshu0025 5y ago
Vow!!! those last lines. Been going through rough patch (mentally), and these lines influenced a bit of my thought process. Can you provide some source or book to read on this deeply? Lines I'm referring = "Just always keep in mind your three biggest enemies: The mimetic reflex of wanting to follow the herd and get approval from others. The seductive illusion of superiority or infallibility. And the general tendency of wanting to be right, and of fooling yourself."
- leobg 5y ago
  Thanks. Well, different sources. As I said, I'm the intuitive type. But I can try to expand on those three. On mimetic desire: 1. Peter Thiel's book, Zero to One. He has an example of a company that buys billboards. Not actually to advertise to customers. But to advertise to their competitors. 2. Girard, who inspired Thiel. For instance, in "The One by Whom Scandal Comes", he writes: "In observing people around us we quickly perceive that mimetic desire, or desirous imitation, dominates not only the smallest details of our everyday behavior, but also the most important choices of our lives, the choice of a spouse, of a career, even the meaning that we give to our existence". 3. Warren Buffett once said, "It's not greed that rules the world. It's envy." 4. Watch children playing. Very often, they start fighting over some toy, even though there are many other toys lying around that nobody wants. That's a great metaphor for business, I find (think of all the buzzwords of areas people want to be in - A.I., crypto, etc.). And it's a great metaphor for investing as well. On superiority: C.G. Jung has this thing about the superiority complex. And I think he especially singled out the personality type that we today would classify as INTJ in the Myers-Briggs typology. INTJs have intuition as their strength. That is to say the thing Nietzsche talked about when he wrote, "It is hard enough to remember my opinions, without also remembering my reasons for them!". The idea is that an INTJ has access to a way of "knowing" things without being conscious of reasons or sources. And the frightening thing is that his intuition is often right! When you look at websites that classify the Myers-Briggs types, they'll often say that the slogan of the INTJ is, "Why is everybody else so wrong?". Once you have discovered that your "weird", often "unexplainable" hunches often do prevail, if you just listen to them, it is easy to believe that you have some "special power". It is easy then to believe that you no longer need to even just attempt to "justify" yourself, or to try to communicate with other people. It's easy for anyone to fall into this trap, of course. The person who once got lucky when buying stocks could easily believe themselves to be infallible. Many a fortune that has been made has been lost again by this exact mechanism. I also find it interesting to hear that, in indigenous cultures, there often are checks and balances enforcing humility. I remember an example from the book "Humankind": A successful hunter comes back into the village. But instead of boasting about his success, he is expected to sit down quietly. And when somebody asks if he caught anything, he is expected to say, "I'm really not much of a hunter. Maybe I got lucky and did catch a little thing." The idea apparently is that if someone becomes too sure of themselves, they eventually will become dangerous to the tribe. There's also the story of Jesus who chooses the lowest chair to sit on. And Tolstoi, in one of his books ("What I Believe"?) speculates that these teachings do not exist so much for the good of society as for the good of the individual. As far as I understand, he says that boastfulness is a happiness trap. Presumably because 1) it makes you feel separate from the people around you and will antagonize them from you and 2) it will eventually cause you to do something stupid, with painful consequences for yourself or for others. On fooling yourself: I was thinking primarily of Feynman's quote: "The first principle is that you must not fool yourself, and you are the easiest person to fool." We humans have the consciousness of the hunter, and we can only focus on one thing at a time (I heard that first in this podcast [1]). Our brains are constantly looking for shortcuts, in order to save energy (hence cognitive biases [2], and often also: failed marriages [3]). We laugh today about people in ancient Mesopotamia who sacrificed lambs to the Gods in order to save a sick child's life. We laugh about how they drew a causal connection where, in reality, none ever was, nor could have been. But then look at B.F. Skinner's "superstition in the pigeon" [4]. The desire to be "in control", and to "have the answer" easily overpowers our feeble minds. Very often, it is more important to us to believe that we know than to really know. What we often seek is not so much the real answer, but escape from the question. Being "unsure", and "not knowing the answer" is not a pleasant state to be in. And, like small children, we often try to escape from this state as quickly as possible. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3VBCWIDEzk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3VBCWIDEzk [2] https://busterbenson.com/piles/cognitive-biases/ https://busterbenson.com/piles/cognitive-biases/ [3] https://stantatkinblog.wordpress.com/2015/04/02/our-automatic-brain-everything-new-will-soon-be-old/ https://stantatkinblog.wordpress.com/2015/04/02/our-automati... [4] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AzjDs8aF7g https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AzjDs8aF7g
softwarefounder 5y ago
Yes to those last couple of lines. I started to pursue a Masters of Divinity, but quickly dropped out as I came to terms that my motivation was primarily to "have the upper-hand" in conversations. (Not to mention I can't set aside 6 years of my life for school right now).

by leobg 5y ago

istinetz 5y ago

>what you do reap is a very interconnected, multidisciplinary way of understanding the world, which comes to you not so much in the form of explicit knowledge but in the form of a very special “intuition”. What is the value of that, though? When it comes to social sciences, everyone believes they have a special intuition or a sense about how the world works. It's impossible to distinguish who actually does, and who is self-delusional. You cannot even be certain for yourself. In tech, in contrast, you can build a product that can prove you are valuable, despite being an un-credentialed autodidact. I can think of only a few paths that can really realize the value of genuine brilliance of this type: 1) With your special intuition of how the world works, predict the course of society and make money off of that. That can be difficult, though, since nobody is going to bankroll you, and this would also require knowledge of finance. 1.1) Gamble on the nascent event markets instead. Not sure if they are going to exist in the long term, though. 2) Write compelling fiction. However, if your conclusions about society are true, but unintuitive to the general public, it's going to be tricky to convince them you're right, and they're wrong. 3) Become political analyst/pundit/substack writer. Same downsides as above. 4) Identify key trends in society and start a business in a field that is likely to dramatically explode. This strategy requires tech or business skills, and is high variability.

Himanshu0025 5y ago

Vow!!! those last lines. Been going through rough patch (mentally), and these lines influenced a bit of my thought process. Can you provide some source or book to read on this deeply? Lines I'm referring = "Just always keep in mind your three biggest enemies: The mimetic reflex of wanting to follow the herd and get approval from others. The seductive illusion of superiority or infallibility. And the general tendency of wanting to be right, and of fooling yourself."

leobg 5y ago
Thanks. Well, different sources. As I said, I'm the intuitive type. But I can try to expand on those three. On mimetic desire: 1. Peter Thiel's book, Zero to One. He has an example of a company that buys billboards. Not actually to advertise to customers. But to advertise to their competitors. 2. Girard, who inspired Thiel. For instance, in "The One by Whom Scandal Comes", he writes: "In observing people around us we quickly perceive that mimetic desire, or desirous imitation, dominates not only the smallest details of our everyday behavior, but also the most important choices of our lives, the choice of a spouse, of a career, even the meaning that we give to our existence". 3. Warren Buffett once said, "It's not greed that rules the world. It's envy." 4. Watch children playing. Very often, they start fighting over some toy, even though there are many other toys lying around that nobody wants. That's a great metaphor for business, I find (think of all the buzzwords of areas people want to be in - A.I., crypto, etc.). And it's a great metaphor for investing as well. On superiority: C.G. Jung has this thing about the superiority complex. And I think he especially singled out the personality type that we today would classify as INTJ in the Myers-Briggs typology. INTJs have intuition as their strength. That is to say the thing Nietzsche talked about when he wrote, "It is hard enough to remember my opinions, without also remembering my reasons for them!". The idea is that an INTJ has access to a way of "knowing" things without being conscious of reasons or sources. And the frightening thing is that his intuition is often right! When you look at websites that classify the Myers-Briggs types, they'll often say that the slogan of the INTJ is, "Why is everybody else so wrong?". Once you have discovered that your "weird", often "unexplainable" hunches often do prevail, if you just listen to them, it is easy to believe that you have some "special power". It is easy then to believe that you no longer need to even just attempt to "justify" yourself, or to try to communicate with other people. It's easy for anyone to fall into this trap, of course. The person who once got lucky when buying stocks could easily believe themselves to be infallible. Many a fortune that has been made has been lost again by this exact mechanism. I also find it interesting to hear that, in indigenous cultures, there often are checks and balances enforcing humility. I remember an example from the book "Humankind": A successful hunter comes back into the village. But instead of boasting about his success, he is expected to sit down quietly. And when somebody asks if he caught anything, he is expected to say, "I'm really not much of a hunter. Maybe I got lucky and did catch a little thing." The idea apparently is that if someone becomes too sure of themselves, they eventually will become dangerous to the tribe. There's also the story of Jesus who chooses the lowest chair to sit on. And Tolstoi, in one of his books ("What I Believe"?) speculates that these teachings do not exist so much for the good of society as for the good of the individual. As far as I understand, he says that boastfulness is a happiness trap. Presumably because 1) it makes you feel separate from the people around you and will antagonize them from you and 2) it will eventually cause you to do something stupid, with painful consequences for yourself or for others. On fooling yourself: I was thinking primarily of Feynman's quote: "The first principle is that you must not fool yourself, and you are the easiest person to fool." We humans have the consciousness of the hunter, and we can only focus on one thing at a time (I heard that first in this podcast [1]). Our brains are constantly looking for shortcuts, in order to save energy (hence cognitive biases [2], and often also: failed marriages [3]). We laugh today about people in ancient Mesopotamia who sacrificed lambs to the Gods in order to save a sick child's life. We laugh about how they drew a causal connection where, in reality, none ever was, nor could have been. But then look at B.F. Skinner's "superstition in the pigeon" [4]. The desire to be "in control", and to "have the answer" easily overpowers our feeble minds. Very often, it is more important to us to believe that we know than to really know. What we often seek is not so much the real answer, but escape from the question. Being "unsure", and "not knowing the answer" is not a pleasant state to be in. And, like small children, we often try to escape from this state as quickly as possible. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3VBCWIDEzk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3VBCWIDEzk [2] https://busterbenson.com/piles/cognitive-biases/ https://busterbenson.com/piles/cognitive-biases/ [3] https://stantatkinblog.wordpress.com/2015/04/02/our-automatic-brain-everything-new-will-soon-be-old/ https://stantatkinblog.wordpress.com/2015/04/02/our-automati... [4] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AzjDs8aF7g https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AzjDs8aF7g

softwarefounder 5y ago

Yes to those last couple of lines. I started to pursue a Masters of Divinity, but quickly dropped out as I came to terms that my motivation was primarily to "have the upper-hand" in conversations. (Not to mention I can't set aside 6 years of my life for school right now).