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I used to think like you do. But the real place where we could make tons of progress is in relationships. Many stories of great thinkers involve one or a few

I used to think like you do. But the real place where we could make tons of progress is in relationships. Many stories of great thinkers involve one or a few crucial mentoring/pedagogical relationships. Without those, a person could forever find themselves trying to fit their square peg into the round hole of what "normal" society around them seems to expect. I can easily see how my life could have ended up like that. As someone who benefited greatly from a few mentors in childhood and adolescence, my goal is to be able to give the same to at least a few other people in my lifetime.

BLKNSLVR 2y ago
Was just discussing various parenting stories with my colleagues over lunch and, like relationships, childhood environment and parental boundaries (or otherwise) would likely be the greatest influence to any individual. But then, if 'mentors' applies to parents, then I guess I'm saying the same thing. Having said that, my teenage son wastes a lot of his life playing online games with his friends, but having said that, I heard him say mid-game to a friend of his "Brazilian isn't a language you idiot!". So, I mean it's trivia, but he knows there's no language called Brazilian. He's a smart kid (that's not the only data point). (I had to look it up: Portugese is the official language of Brazil).
alok-g 2y ago
>> As someone who benefited greatly from a few mentors in childhood and adolescence, my goal is to be able to give the same to at least a few other people in my lifetime. +1. Same for me. Relationships has been more important than what I could consider ideal or optimal (in terms of how many missed opportunities are there). Once I was reading a technical paper from a colleague and could not follow much. Spoke to him and he could explain the crux of it in two-three sentences. I was left wondering why that was not there in the paper itself. But that happens repeatedly. People are able to explain much better than the literature they produce*. This perhaps has a contribution as to why good relationships and mentors end up being so important. But then, this ultimately comes in the way of scalability. * Of course, it may possibly also be that in a verbal conversation when the author personally knows the reader, they can explain to that reader better. However, I think this effect is less important than people being able to write better.

BLKNSLVR 2y ago

Was just discussing various parenting stories with my colleagues over lunch and, like relationships, childhood environment and parental boundaries (or otherwise) would likely be the greatest influence to any individual. But then, if 'mentors' applies to parents, then I guess I'm saying the same thing. Having said that, my teenage son wastes a lot of his life playing online games with his friends, but having said that, I heard him say mid-game to a friend of his "Brazilian isn't a language you idiot!". So, I mean it's trivia, but he knows there's no language called Brazilian. He's a smart kid (that's not the only data point). (I had to look it up: Portugese is the official language of Brazil).

alok-g 2y ago

>> As someone who benefited greatly from a few mentors in childhood and adolescence, my goal is to be able to give the same to at least a few other people in my lifetime. +1. Same for me. Relationships has been more important than what I could consider ideal or optimal (in terms of how many missed opportunities are there). Once I was reading a technical paper from a colleague and could not follow much. Spoke to him and he could explain the crux of it in two-three sentences. I was left wondering why that was not there in the paper itself. But that happens repeatedly. People are able to explain much better than the literature they produce*. This perhaps has a contribution as to why good relationships and mentors end up being so important. But then, this ultimately comes in the way of scalability. * Of course, it may possibly also be that in a verbal conversation when the author personally knows the reader, they can explain to that reader better. However, I think this effect is less important than people being able to write better.