“They laughed at Galileo. They laughed at Einstein. But they also laughed at Bozo the Clown.”
It’s true that being shunned or attacked is a sign that you’ve likely done something nonconforming and transgressive. But some things are nonconforming and transgressive just because they’re stupid or obnoxious.
I think what this means is that trying to measure how non-conformist you are, and hoping that “the more non-conformist the better”, is a mistake. Being unlike other people isn’t a good goal, in itself, because most ways of being unlike other people are not improvements. What you need to identify is ways of doing better, specifically, and measuring whether they laugh at you / shun you / stone you won’t do that, because they’ll do that for being worse as well as for being better.
“They laughed at Galileo. They laughed at Einstein. But they also laughed at Bozo the Clown.”
It’s true that being shunned or attacked is a sign that you’ve likely done something nonconforming and transgressive. But some things are nonconforming and transgressive just because they’re stupid or obnoxious.
I think what this means is that trying to measure how non-conformist you are, and hoping that “the more non-conformist the better”, is a mistake. Being unlike other people isn’t a good goal, in itself, because most ways of being unlike other people are not improvements. What you need to identify is ways of doing better, specifically, and measuring whether they laugh at you / shun you / stone you won’t do that, because they’ll do that for being worse as well as for being better.
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