Erik Torenberg

In 2024 I've discovered a blog that was a fountain of new thoughts and ideas for me: https://eriktorenberg.substack.com

https://eriktorenberg.substack.com/p/on-solitude was a post that was on HN a while ago. It basically agrees. We get some good things from solitude.

The opposing case: >..the incentives of a managerial class are not the same as the incentives of the lone entrepreneur. They have different timelines, risk profiles, and diversification/skin in the game. The managerial class is often motivated by a huge salary, so they’re more likely to play it safe to preserve their job. Even if the companies fail, they’ll get extremely rich. They’re just trying to hang on for as long as they can. Owners however are often motivated by their equity, so they’re more likely to think in the long-term interests of the company. https://eriktorenberg.substack.com/p/burnham-elon-and-the-revenge-of-e…

I think you are conflating System 1 and System 2 thinking (from Kahneman's _Thinking Fast and Slow_ [1]). Frauds typically work by triggering our System 1 ("lizard brain", containing our emotions and our innate mate selection/attraction) which selectively / temporarily disables our System 2 (cognitive / rational faculties). We have words to describe the abstractions in the mind ("ego", "defense mechanism") which form filters that prevent information from passing System 1 into System 2 unless our mind is open to accepting it. The entire point of these frauds is to trigger System 1 of the victim. This article[2] was eye-opening for me in helping me understand how the brain filters information before it can reach System 2. You probably notice it when you talk to people and they reject / deflect facts that disconfirm their priors. While I agree with you about the {QAnon, The Big Lie, Bolsonaro protesters} examples, I think people (including myself) severely overestimate _our own_ ability to withstand something untrue that tickles our confirmation bias. We all have these features, only some people have better control over their System 1 filters. I'm fascinated by these topics because (1) I work in cybersecurity and (2) I have family members that fell into QAnon + The Big Lie. Learning about _Street Epistemology_[3] has been really interesting to help me better understand not only many of these belief systems, but how discussing them in selective ways can avoid the…