PAUL GRAHAM

The four types are not equally common. There are more passive people than aggressive ones, and far more conventional-minded people than independent-minded ones. So the passively conventional-minded are the largest group, and the aggressively inde...

One of the most revealing ways to classify people is by the degree and aggressiveness of their conformism.

These classification parameters are useful for classifying people in most societies. The result of the classification will depend more on the ...

An intuitive representation of the degree and aggressiveness of conformism can be done by using the Cartesian coordinate system.

The horizontal axis runs from conventional-minded on the left to independent-minded on the right.

The vertical axi...

• Aggressively conventional-minded: they believe not only that rules must be obeyed, but that those who disobey them must be punished.
• Passively conventional-minded: they're careful to obey the rules, but when other kids break them, their impulse is to...

In the past, the way the independent-minded protected themselves was to congregate in a handful of places — first in courts, and later in universities — where they could to some extent make their own rules.

For the last cou...