Paul Graham wrote an essay about this: http://www.paulgraham.com/identity.html http://www.paulgraham.com/identity.html Though he primarily talked about religio

Paul Graham wrote an essay about this: http://www.paulgraham.com/identity.html http://www.paulgraham.com/identity.html Though he primarily talked about religion and politics (it's an old essay), I see people attaching other concepts to their identity, and then verbally fighting to the death if you point out the slightest flaw in any of these concepts.