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by leto_ii 1405 days ago
I won't offer names, but I have a contrarian piece of advice: whenever you find yourself 'resonating' too much with a certain thinker, a certain religion, ideology etc. stop, take a deep breath and start asking why that is.

The odds that any particular person will always be right are basically zero. It's way more likely that you're just consuming things that reinforce prior beliefs and make you feel good.

Make sure that you're periodically engaging with people who challenge your beliefs.

2 comments

The 'Decoding the Gurus' podcast is germane to that point: https://decoding-the-gurus.captivate.fm
I don’t know why this is being downvoted, it’s completely true.
Sure but it isn’t helpful in context. It’s a bucket of cold water put on the entire conversation.
The "conversation" here is mostly a list of names. It's like reading a glorified phone book.

I thought the comment was provocative, thus more likely to yield actual conversation.

It's akin to "What's your favorite book?" being responded with "Have you considered that books maybe be untrue and are just reinforcing your biases?"

It's become regular and tiresome on HN to have these "provocative comments" on top. When I click an Ask HN, I come for answers, not for someone educating me on how the question is stupid.

Just now got around to reading the replies.

I actually didn't intend to be tiresomely provocative, I think the other replies with lists of names are appropriate for the question posed.

I just wanted to post a sort memento to remind everybody that the names may be all worth looking into, but that we shouldn't take them as gurus.

We should always filter with our own minds.

Sorry for lashing out. I was sick, so I spent the weekend in bed scrolling through HN and it was just getting to me.