Thoughts of The Week #50

“Thoughts of the week” is a review of the most interesting thoughts I encountered on Twitter and on other mediums during the last week.

1/5: Exit and build

“Exit and build.” – Stephen Pimentel

The context of the thread is Balaji S. Srinivasan having written “Tech’s model relies on a clean slate, empowered leadership, and venture returns. It is not suited for reforming systems. But it is suited for building massively popular alternatives to them,” to which Stephen Pimentel replied “Exit and build. Do not grant incumbents a veto. Exit and build”.

Almost all life-changing discoveries took place outside of academy (academy justified while they were working, but didn’t come up with the idea – a process that Nicholas Nassim Taleb calls “lecturing birds on how to fly”).

The same applies to art.

If you are inside, and are looking for a life-changing discovery, exit and build.

2/5: Purpose

“You still get to do some unpleasant work when you’re self-employed. What you don’t do is purposeless work.” – Daniel Vassallo

An additional note is that purpose is usually a rationalization of experiencing the rewards of one’s work.

3/5: Ideologies

“Most ideologies are little more than rationalizations for shitty personalities.” – @G_S_Bhogal

I like the spirit, though I would precise that most often they are the result of an otherwise inadmissible behavior bringing advantages to the actor.

4/5: Empathy

“If I had an obligation to them, it wasn’t to assume what was best for them; rather, it was to listen and try to understand what they valued, what they wanted, and not get in the way.” – Chris Arnade, Dignity

A solution that the recipient doesn’t want often becomes another problem.

Listening is about accepting first and foremost. Helping can only come later.

(P.S. Dignity was a great book to start the year.)

5/5: Adaptation

“Laws are often conceived and discussed with the framing employers must do X for their employees as if the set of employees will be held constant.” – Stephen Pimentel

Do not choose laws for what they do, but for how the population adapts to them.

Do not consider laws for how they affect their target, but for how they affect the population.

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(Here is my general disclaimer.)

Quotes are edited for punctuation and grammar. Eventual formatting is mine. Also text outside of italicized quotation marks is mine. The inclusion of quotes does not imply my endorsement; merely, that they gave me food for thought. I did not optimize this review for clarity, but for its ability to spark thoughts in the reader.