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Cargo culting is one of those mental models that appears everywhere once you learn about it. Similar to kayfabe in wrestling and politics. 99.9% of humanity bas

Cargo culting is one of those mental models that appears everywhere once you learn about it. Similar to kayfabe in wrestling and politics. 99.9% of humanity basically is winging it daily (by copying the shallowest parts of whatever philosophy/ideology they espouse) pretending they know everything while the 0.01% is honest with themselves and thus are free to question and doubt their own ideas in order to improve them. This 0.1% is mostly invisible despite pushing humanity forward

karmakurtisaani 3y ago
Wait, did you just wing those percentages?
- tomcam 3y ago
  76.7% of Hacker News readers believe so
josephg 3y ago
I assume you place yourself in that 0.1%? Or was it 0.01%? Personally, I think we're all winging it almost every moment of our lives. Relative to domain experts, I'm bad at almost everything I do. (Cooking, driving, talking, writing, planning, etc). I'm only really good at maybe 2 or 3 things. I think we're all like this. And its fundamentally ok. Its how human brains are wired. Sometimes I imagine dividing all my thoughts between things I've personally invented and things I've heard from others. Whats the ratio? I think at least 95% of my thoughts come from other people. Maybe 99%. Maybe more.
- hellothere1337 3y ago
  Nah I'm pretty stupid and follow the herd, its the reason for my success too!
- bagacrap 3y ago
  How could you even tell if you've personally invented something? You don't know what caused a thought to pop into your head. Heck I often forget things I've said, so I clearly forget things I've heard. I could be fully convinced an idea was my own and still be dead wrong. Luckily you can build on the ideas of others without being a cargo cultist. Simply verify the sturdiness of the foundation before you go adding an extra wing to the house.
drewcoo 3y ago
23? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/23_enigma https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/23_enigma

karmakurtisaani 3y ago

Wait, did you just wing those percentages?

tomcam 3y ago
76.7% of Hacker News readers believe so

josephg 3y ago

I assume you place yourself in that 0.1%? Or was it 0.01%? Personally, I think we're all winging it almost every moment of our lives. Relative to domain experts, I'm bad at almost everything I do. (Cooking, driving, talking, writing, planning, etc). I'm only really good at maybe 2 or 3 things. I think we're all like this. And its fundamentally ok. Its how human brains are wired. Sometimes I imagine dividing all my thoughts between things I've personally invented and things I've heard from others. Whats the ratio? I think at least 95% of my thoughts come from other people. Maybe 99%. Maybe more.

hellothere1337 3y ago
Nah I'm pretty stupid and follow the herd, its the reason for my success too!
bagacrap 3y ago
How could you even tell if you've personally invented something? You don't know what caused a thought to pop into your head. Heck I often forget things I've said, so I clearly forget things I've heard. I could be fully convinced an idea was my own and still be dead wrong. Luckily you can build on the ideas of others without being a cargo cultist. Simply verify the sturdiness of the foundation before you go adding an extra wing to the house.

drewcoo 3y ago

23? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/23_enigma https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/23_enigma