Learn more about philosophy with this collection
How to establish a positive team culture
How to collaborate effectively
How to build trust with a new team
Understanding where you fall in the spectrum from conventional to independent-minded can be tricky. Conventional-minded people don't like to think of themselves as conventional-minded. And the independent-minded, meanwhile, are often unaware how different their ideas are from conventional ones, at least till they state them publicly. But in most cases, if you're naturally independent-minded, you're going to find it frustrating to be a middle manager. And if you're naturally conventional-minded, you're going to be sailing into a headwind if you try to do original research.
36
158 reads
MORE IDEAS ON THIS
Fastidiousness about truth means more than just not believing things that are false. It means being careful about degree of belief.
36
112 reads
When I read history I do it not just to learn what happened, but to try to get inside the heads of people who lived in the past. How did things look to them? This is hard to do, but worth the effort for the same reason it's worth travelling far to triangulate a point.
38
128 reads
First, you want to avoid situations that suppress curiosity. The most important active step you can take to cultivate your curiosity is probably to seek out the topics that engage it. Few adults are equally curious about everything. It's up to you to find your niche that sparks curiosity the most...
35
105 reads
The third component of independent-mindedness, curiosity, may be the most interesting. To the extent that we can give a brief answer to the question of where novel ideas come from, it's curiosity. That's what people are usually feeling before having them.
36
102 reads
According to Paul Graham, internal structure of independent-mindedness has three components: fastidiousness about truth, resistance to being told what to think, and curiosity.
37
124 reads
If your goal is to discover novel ideas, your motto should not be "do what you love" so much as "do what you're curious about."
36
124 reads
But this pattern isn't universal. In fact, it doesn't hold for most kinds of work. In most kinds of work β to be an administrator, for example β all you need is to be right. It's not essential that everyone else be wrong. And here the distinction between independent-minde...
35
194 reads
Some strategies to follow to cultivate independent-mindedness:
35
156 reads
In the most independent-minded people, the desire not to be told what to think is a positive force. It's not mere skepticism, but an active delight in ideas that subvert the conventional wisdom, the more counter intuitive the better.
35
103 reads
There are some kinds of work that you can't do well without thinking differently from your peers. A scientist can make the most impact if his or her ideas are correct as well as novel. An essay will be more interesting if the essayist has something unique to say. An investor will find room to mak...
36
263 reads
CURATED FROM
Related collections
More like this
When you're young, it's super important for you to consider which type of work you wanna be doing.
Because you can either be independent-minded or conventional minded. And it, more or less, depends on birth.
People who are naturally Independent Minded will find tasks, that require onl...
Read & Learn
20x Faster
without
deepstash
with
deepstash
with
deepstash
Access to 200,000+ ideas
β
Access to the mobile app
β
Unlimited idea saving & library
β
β
Unlimited history
β
β
Unlimited listening to ideas
β
β
Downloading & offline access
β
β
Personalized recommendations
β
β
Supercharge your mind with one idea per day
Enter your email and spend 1 minute every day to learn something new.
I agree to receive email updates