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It's unclear what utility this mindset has and how it will not lead to self-delusion. If I convince myself I'm the most visionary product manager who ever live

It's unclear what utility this mindset has and how it will not lead to self-delusion. If I convince myself I'm the most visionary product manager who ever lived, and I really believe that, it will either a) create blindspots and prevent me from proper self-reflection and self-correction or b) force me into a state of cognitive dissonance where I believe I'm the best, while knowing I'm not, creating a new and unnecessary problem for myself as I try to navigate the world. Feedback from those around you is an important form of evidence. While it is true that ideally one should not internalize that feedback or bow to its pressure if it's related to a moral or ethical stance, it is similarly problematic to discard it entirely, and delude oneself into a form of irrational hubris. > ...to belief in absence of evidence AND also absence of real world positive feedback all around you (which is needed for strong self-belief) Belief in yourself is important, yes. Not taking feedback personally is important, yes. Ignoring feedback entirely is problematic.

mise_en_place 4y ago
I don't think it's about convincing yourself of anything. A leap of faith doesn't work that way, you can't just say "I believe" and delude yourself into that belief. It requires actually having faith, which is experiential.
- haswell 4y ago
  A leap of faith and blind faith are not the same thing at all. A leap of faith is evidence of self-belief, and is hopefully founded on some reasonable basis. A leap of faith takes something you know, and makes a bet based on it. Blind faith is based on nothing other than a wish, and persists even when presented with hard evidence that disagrees.
Bubble_Pop_22 4y ago
> It's unclear what utility this mindset has and how it will not lead to self-delusion. You gotta believe you are the best and let the chips fall where they may. Matter of fact if self-confidence and faith is high enough, you'd be having such a blast that you won't care where the chips fall at all. It's a way of cutting the corner, before you'd need accomplishments to be happy with yourself...after acquiring the faith you skip to the good part directly.
- haswell 4y ago
  > you'd be having such a blast that you won't care where the chips fall at all Why is this a good thing? This sounds like delusion, not having a blast. Humility is required to self-correct when you're off track. Humility and blind faith are incompatible. Humility and self confidence can co-exist, however. My religious parents will tell you how happy their faith makes them, but they also managed to traumatize their kids in the process. Blind faith leads to blind spots, predictably. Blind faith leads to dogmatism, which is at the root of today's tribalism. Blind faith should not be celebrated. Blind faith begets religion, of the god-variety and otherwise. But blind faith isn't required to be confident in oneself. It sounds counterintuitive, but If you want true peace, accepting and embracing your limitations is a freeing endeavor. The stoics figured this out, and have quite a few wise things to say about it. Maybe you and I have different interpretations of what you mean by blind faith, but the version I've been exposed to is a road that leads to more problems than it solves.
  - Bubble_Pop_22 4y ago
    You are approaching it like a problem to solve with the mindset of somebody who is trying to get self-confidence as a step in the direction of building something or achieve results. If you manage to get the self-confidence at a sky high level you won't care about building something or achieving goals. Mentally they'd be redundant and sort of pushing on a string given that your self satisfaction is maxed out already. You can't grasp it now because you imagine a person like that as deluded and 'not going anywhere' or even worse regressing, but if you manage to get in that state of mind, you'd be the one living it and having a blast inside your own head, not being an external observer judging. If you think about it's a way of cheating Mother Nature, for the rules are that she releases endorphines and satsifaction after a job well done. The person who manages to get in that state of mind endogenously would be de-facto ambushing Mother Nature and beating her up until she releases the endorphines without anything in exchange for it.
    - haswell 4y ago
      > If you manage to get the self-confidence at a sky high level you won't care about building something or achieving goals. I question the idea that a sky high level of self confidence is the ultimate antidote to everything that can go wrong in life. What you describe does not align with a modern understanding of human psychology and how we experience life. What happens the first time you encounter a painful failure? What if the failure was your fault?

mise_en_place 4y ago

I don't think it's about convincing yourself of anything. A leap of faith doesn't work that way, you can't just say "I believe" and delude yourself into that belief. It requires actually having faith, which is experiential.

haswell 4y ago
A leap of faith and blind faith are not the same thing at all. A leap of faith is evidence of self-belief, and is hopefully founded on some reasonable basis. A leap of faith takes something you know, and makes a bet based on it. Blind faith is based on nothing other than a wish, and persists even when presented with hard evidence that disagrees.

Bubble_Pop_22 4y ago

> It's unclear what utility this mindset has and how it will not lead to self-delusion. You gotta believe you are the best and let the chips fall where they may. Matter of fact if self-confidence and faith is high enough, you'd be having such a blast that you won't care where the chips fall at all. It's a way of cutting the corner, before you'd need accomplishments to be happy with yourself...after acquiring the faith you skip to the good part directly.

haswell 4y ago
> you'd be having such a blast that you won't care where the chips fall at all Why is this a good thing? This sounds like delusion, not having a blast. Humility is required to self-correct when you're off track. Humility and blind faith are incompatible. Humility and self confidence can co-exist, however. My religious parents will tell you how happy their faith makes them, but they also managed to traumatize their kids in the process. Blind faith leads to blind spots, predictably. Blind faith leads to dogmatism, which is at the root of today's tribalism. Blind faith should not be celebrated. Blind faith begets religion, of the god-variety and otherwise. But blind faith isn't required to be confident in oneself. It sounds counterintuitive, but If you want true peace, accepting and embracing your limitations is a freeing endeavor. The stoics figured this out, and have quite a few wise things to say about it. Maybe you and I have different interpretations of what you mean by blind faith, but the version I've been exposed to is a road that leads to more problems than it solves.
- Bubble_Pop_22 4y ago
  You are approaching it like a problem to solve with the mindset of somebody who is trying to get self-confidence as a step in the direction of building something or achieve results. If you manage to get the self-confidence at a sky high level you won't care about building something or achieving goals. Mentally they'd be redundant and sort of pushing on a string given that your self satisfaction is maxed out already. You can't grasp it now because you imagine a person like that as deluded and 'not going anywhere' or even worse regressing, but if you manage to get in that state of mind, you'd be the one living it and having a blast inside your own head, not being an external observer judging. If you think about it's a way of cheating Mother Nature, for the rules are that she releases endorphines and satsifaction after a job well done. The person who manages to get in that state of mind endogenously would be de-facto ambushing Mother Nature and beating her up until she releases the endorphines without anything in exchange for it.
  - haswell 4y ago
    > If you manage to get the self-confidence at a sky high level you won't care about building something or achieving goals. I question the idea that a sky high level of self confidence is the ultimate antidote to everything that can go wrong in life. What you describe does not align with a modern understanding of human psychology and how we experience life. What happens the first time you encounter a painful failure? What if the failure was your fault?