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Definitely agreed. The version of introspection presented here is inherently outward then inward, which is fine, but I'm not sure that's actually that useful. If the crowd has fucked up values, adapting to their fucked up values isn't a victory, it's just conforming to fucked up values. I think YC is a great example of this, many of the companies they fund are unethical and shallow moneygrabs (I'd be happy to detail them, but it's not useful). If you adapt to that, well, good luck because you might be an unethical and shallow carpetbagger. I've got the problem of being too introspective, which can lead to a lot of beating yourself up, but after 30 years I get myself, which is nice. I'm not sure you can do that if you're constantly chasing what a lot of people value though which is success, "influence", money, a social life, etc. Those are all great indicators of success, but if you don't slow down how can you really stop and think about yourself? Not to introduce Trump (okay, going to do it anyway), but that's a guy who has spent 70 years chasing stuff, being addicted to fast food and TV. Has that guy ever stopped and thought about what's wrong with himself? What he can do better? Strongly doubt it. Much of our society is that, caught up in some loop where they never have the ability to do anything but react. If we're honest with ourselves, much of what the world values is stupid if not outright evil. When people don't see that I don't believe they've really thought things through. That's pretentious, but we gotta get real about how we and others work or nothing will change. Guess what I'm saying is by all means be introspective, but really be introspective. Don't measure yourself against bad yardsticks, be honest about your flaws and strengths. Don't do it because it's some game to maximize your utility, do it because if you don't do it, you are worse off. |