Normies mistrust weirdos -- and they’re right to do so

The precondition of a working society is mutual trust.

The precondition of a working society is mutual trust. “Society” is just a bunch of deals — “mutually beneficial trades”, as economists call them or “win-win deals” as marketers with a better ear for language do — and the precondition to enter a deal with someone is trusting them as a counter-party. Trusting them to keep up their end of the deal, so that you can actually benefit from it actually going through; but also trusting them in a more basic way: trusting them not to actively harm you. You’d rather take a loan from a bank than a loanshark, even if the rates were worse and the reason…

saved by

• Timothy Kostolansky

related reading

• The Nerd as the Norm – Everything Studieseverythingstudies.com
• Don't Surround Yourself With Smarter People — Ribbonfarmribbonfarm.com
• Annoyingly Principled People, and what befalls them — LessWronglesswrong.com
• You have a set amount of "weirdness points". Spend them wisely. — LessWronglesswrong.com
• Incentives are for losersexperimental-history.com
• Don’t Learn Value From Societypalladiummag.com
• Are you a jerk, or a liar?usefulfictions.substack.com
• The Return of the Weirdo - by Ted Gioia - The Honest Brokerhonest-broker.com
• The Decline of Deviance - by Adam Mastroianniexperimental-history.com
• The Outliersjosephheath.substack.com
• There's a place for everyone - by Adam Mastroianniexperimental-history.com
• Normativity and Anti-Normativity - by Sarah Constantinsarahconstantin.substack.com