I know about three people who actually have been raised to be free-thinkers. They’ve turned out quite successful—two are scientists, one has shaky career prospects but great internal resources.
The key, though, is to be free-thinking plus practical. If you’re a free-thinker, but constantly shocked and unprepared to confront people who aren’t, you’re going to get in trouble, because you’ll be unaware of the social and personal costs of your actions. You won’t know how to pick your battles.
The difference between free-thinkers and non-free-thinkers is that the free-thinker actually perceives it as “I’m picking my battles, I’m not fighting City Hall this time” while the non-free-thinker gets an instant aversion signal from every unpopular choice. It’s more in your own best interest to be a practical free-thinker than a non-free-thinker, because you can pick your battles. That means that when you really value something—more than you value social approval—you can actually achieve it. It’s a better optimization procedure than listening to the blind aversion signals.
Also, practicality is a thing parameterized by your goals. There are goals where the most effective action is to “fight city hall”—even though you are certain to lose. All civil rights wars were won that way.
I know about three people who actually have been raised to be free-thinkers. They’ve turned out quite successful—two are scientists, one has shaky career prospects but great internal resources.
The key, though, is to be free-thinking plus practical. If you’re a free-thinker, but constantly shocked and unprepared to confront people who aren’t, you’re going to get in trouble, because you’ll be unaware of the social and personal costs of your actions. You won’t know how to pick your battles.
The difference between free-thinkers and non-free-thinkers is that the free-thinker actually perceives it as “I’m picking my battles, I’m not fighting City Hall this time” while the non-free-thinker gets an instant aversion signal from every unpopular choice. It’s more in your own best interest to be a practical free-thinker than a non-free-thinker, because you can pick your battles. That means that when you really value something—more than you value social approval—you can actually achieve it. It’s a better optimization procedure than listening to the blind aversion signals.
Also, practicality is a thing parameterized by your goals. There are goals where the most effective action is to “fight city hall”—even though you are certain to lose. All civil rights wars were won that way.