Willingness to look stupid
People frequently1 think that I'm very stupid. I don't find this surprising, since I don't mind if other people think I'm stupid, which means that I don't adjust my behavior to avoid seeming stupid, which results in people thinking that I'm stupid. Although there are some downsides to people thinking that I'm stupid, e.g., failing interviews where the interviewer very clearly thought I was stupid, I think that, overall, the upsides of being willing to look stupid have greatly outweighed the downsides.
Willingness to look stupid People frequently 1 think that I'm very stupid. I don't find this surprising, since I don't mind if other people think I'm stupid, which means that I don't adjust my behavior to avoid seeming stupid, which results in people thinking that I'm stupid. Although there are some downsides to people thinking that I'm stupid, e.g., failing interviews where the interviewer very clearly thought I was stupid, I think that, overall, the upsides of being willing to look stupid have greatly outweighed the downsides. I don't know why this one example sticks in my head but, for me,
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- Yufei Xiao
- Mackenzie Dion
- Jacky Zhao
- Trang Đoàn
- James Rogers
- Vivian M
- Kelly Chong
- Shubham Shah
- Kaylee George
- shen g
- Eli Qian
- Aryan Naik
related reading
- Willingness to look stupid is a genuine moat in creative worksharif.io
- Advice to Young People, The Lies I Tell Myself - Jason Liujxnl.github.io
- The radical idea that people aren't stupidexperimentalhistory.substack.com
- Face it: you're a crazy person - by Adam Mastroianniexperimental-history.com
- Early Workpaulgraham.com
- How To Understand Thingsnabeelqu.substack.com
- How to seem good at everything: Stop doing stupid shit - Josh's Posterousweb.archive.org
- Humans are not automatically strategic — LessWronglesswrong.com
- In My Misanthropy Era — LessWronglesswrong.com
- How People Think · Collaborative Fundcollaborativefund.com
- Early Workpaulgraham.com
- Look at yourself objectively (Aaron Swartz's Raw Thought)aaronsw.com