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Think For Your Own God Damned Self

Started by Salty, January 22, 2014, 07:12:50 PM

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Salty

Nothing complicated, just:

Thinking for yourself, at least attempting to come up wih your own ideas, is super rad, right?
We Discordians tend to value that, much the same way I tend to admire people who make their own shit.

Make your own food, brew your own beer, grow your own, uh, medicine...awesome! That is totally cool, good for you.

But Jesus, don't go thinking EVERYBODY is going to want a taste. Maybe it needs more work, maybe the taste of it gratifies YOU but leaves others wanting. Is this a reflection of the quality of your product? Yes. Whose sense of quality is most important?

Maybe you just fucked up and have no perspective?

How will you know if you don't put yourself out there and try and share?
The world is a car and you're the crash test dummy.

The Good Reverend Roger

I don't expect people to automatically agree with me.  I wouldn't want them to...I'd rather have them think for themselves, even though they're WRONG. 
" It's just that Depeche Mode were a bunch of optimistic loveburgers."
- TGRR, shaming himself forever, 7/8/2017

"Billy, when I say that ethics is our number one priority and safety is also our number one priority, you should take that to mean exactly what I said. Also quality. That's our number one priority as well. Don't look at me that way, you're in the corporate world now and this is how it works."
- TGRR, raising the bar at work.

Salty

Quote from: Dirty Old Uncle Roger on January 22, 2014, 07:16:47 PM
I don't expect people to automatically agree with me.  I wouldn't want them to...I'd rather have them think for themselves, even though they're WRONG.

Most of the time it feel like I am just waiting for someone to counter me, hotly, so my defense either holds water or not. I actually think I have begun to feel contempt when people are unwilling amd unable to do so, IRL.
The world is a car and you're the crash test dummy.

LMNO

It's also a bit awkward when someone's not expecting you to start ripping their favorite thesis over drinks.

The Good Reverend Roger

Quote from: LMNO, PhD (life continues) on January 22, 2014, 07:26:34 PM
It's also a bit awkward when someone's not expecting you to start ripping their favorite thesis over drinks.

And by "awkward", you mean "AWESOME".
" It's just that Depeche Mode were a bunch of optimistic loveburgers."
- TGRR, shaming himself forever, 7/8/2017

"Billy, when I say that ethics is our number one priority and safety is also our number one priority, you should take that to mean exactly what I said. Also quality. That's our number one priority as well. Don't look at me that way, you're in the corporate world now and this is how it works."
- TGRR, raising the bar at work.

Salty

Quote from: Dirty Old Uncle Roger on January 22, 2014, 07:31:10 PM
Quote from: LMNO, PhD (life continues) on January 22, 2014, 07:26:34 PM
It's also a bit awkward when someone's not expecting you to start ripping their favorite thesis over drinks.

And by "awkward", you mean "AWESOME".

:lol:

Who said fun has to be fun?
The world is a car and you're the crash test dummy.

Salty

But yeah, there is a time and a place.

I dont think that contempt is a good thing, I am working on it.
The world is a car and you're the crash test dummy.

tyrannosaurus vex

I have found that attempting to purposely "think for myself" is harder than it sounds. Maybe it's just me, but it's way too easy to slip into an "I've already heard this opinion somewhere, so it can't be mine" kind of brain loop. I also tend to think about things I am no expert about, so there's a lot of borrowing other people's conclusions going on. On some topics, though, thinking for myself is really the only way to go because the selection of ideas and conclusions available on the open market are either completely asinine or necessarily linked to other ideas that are asinine (see: politics).

"Think for yourself" is a bit like "be yourself." Great advice, if you can actually nail down what the fuck you're actually talking about. Which premises are inherently valuable or correct? Which aspects of "myself" are really "myself" and not some half-baked amalgamation of sensory input stuck in my cognitive gears?

Am I derailing the topic? Apologies if so.
Evil and Unfeeling Arse-Flenser From The City of the Damned.

Salty

Quote from: V3X on January 22, 2014, 07:33:45 PM
I have found that attempting to purposely "think for myself" is harder than it sounds. Maybe it's just me, but it's way too easy to slip into an "I've already heard this opinion somewhere, so it can't be mine" kind of brain loop. I also tend to think about things I am no expert about, so there's a lot of borrowing other people's conclusions going on. On some topics, though, thinking for myself is really the only way to go because the selection of ideas and conclusions available on the open market are either completely asinine or necessarily linked to other ideas that are asinine (see: politics).

"Think for yourself" is a bit like "be yourself." Great advice, if you can actually nail down what the fuck you're actually talking about. Which premises are inherently valuable or correct? Which aspects of "myself" are really "myself" and not some half-baked amalgamation of sensory input stuck in my cognitive gears?

Am I derailing the topic? Apologies if so.

I struggle with that too, it can be sort of paralyzing. For me the trick seems to be: blurt it out, deal with consequences. Theimportamt thing, I think, is that you gain some benefit from TFYS, S! One of the primarybenefits I experience is connections with other people. Getting it all OUT is critical because it fosters those connections, one way or another.
The world is a car and you're the crash test dummy.

Salty

Of course, TFYS is a tenuous hold on your mind.


The point isNOT to come up New And Improved Ideas For A Better Tomorrow. The point is to use your brain to its maximum capacity. For me, TFYS shorthand for Stop Thinking In Grooves. TFYS, for me, is a way to break through grooves and patterns, to keep picking the lock, so it never fully heals.

If I end up with something afterward, and I usually do, great. But if nothing else, I am freed from grooved thinking.

What is that worth to you? My freedom? Eh?
The world is a car and you're the crash test dummy.

3n1g

'Keep picking the lock so it never fully heals'

As a cryptology-inclined life long scab picker I find this very plus good.

Wisa1

thinking about this from an artistic/creative perspective more than an intellectual one and it does often seem like there is a direct correlation between the originality of a work (or idea) and it's wider palatability ie the more it gratifies you the less it gratifies everyone else.

Im sure we've all run up against those situations in a conversation where your thoughts and those of the other conversationalist veer too close to your own inner processes and end up becoming mutually incomprehensible.
"As I treks through the cesspit I sharps up my wit"
"We dont wanna be, we just be"
-Roots Manuva

Salty

Quote from: 3n1g on January 23, 2014, 03:00:14 AM
'Keep picking the lock so it never fully heals'

As a cryptology-inclined life long scab picker I find this very plus good.

I do believe that came from one of LMNO's stories, more or less.
The world is a car and you're the crash test dummy.

LMNO

I'm honored, yet forgetful.  The meaning is right, but the phrasing is new to me.  But i like.