24 条评论
- ElProlactin 10小时前> Your life’s goal should be to become the most improbable person you can be.
Your life's goal should not be dictated by Substack philosophers.
> Here is what you gain with your most improbable life:
> The authentic you. Your particular mix of talents, native abilities, personal inclinations, genetic limits, life experiences, and ambitious desires points to a mixture that is distinctly unique – if it is allowed to blossom. The further you move in that direction, the more you-like you become.
The West's obsession with "self-help" is built on convincing individuals that they are special but not living up to their special-ness. It then demands they do things to realize their special-ness.
The premise is that realization, fulfillment and happiness are only accessible if you do things you're not naturally inclined to do. Which begs the question: are you being the "authentic you" if you are following a path laid out by someone else?
> Finally, the less predictable you are, the less likely you are to be replaced by AIs. Machines are efficient, and they are powered by the predictable. Current LLMs are trained to generate the most predictable solution. So far they are not very good at duplicating what a creative, one-of-a-kind improbable human can produce. To distance yourself from the machines, aim to be as improbable as you can be.
Tell this to all the creatives who are being disrupted by AI that has, in many cases, been trained on their content.
- CuriouslyC 9小时前The next level of realization is that every path you've been following your entire life has been laid out by someone else, or chosen due to the value system imparted by someone else, so there's not really an authentic "you" in the way that people like to believe.
- demorro 36分钟前This is a distinction without a difference. We can conceptualize ourselves as fully deterministic individuals, or transcendentally connected nodes in a greater consciousness, or innumerable interpretations in-between. It's completely possible to be a deterministic materialist without being a nihilist.
In fact, I'd argue it's inevitable. A deterministic metaphysic dictates that you must come to the conclusion that it simply doesn't matter how you interpret things, and therefore you will eventually, accidentally, trivially choose to interpret yourself in a non-nihilistic way, thus breaking the trap and allowing yourself a compatible sense of self-determination, despite being capable of understanding the untruth of it.
- fugaziboutit 8小时前I realised this in 2006 when I committed the faux pas of wearing a cerulean blue sweater to a screening of The Devil Wears Prada.
- sweetjuly 6小时前Reading this thread, I'm starting to think that I did not fall out of a coconut tree and that I exist in the context of all in which I live and what came before me.
- hypfer 3小时前> every path you've been following your entire life has been laid out by someone else
Not really, no.
The actual realization is that other people in the past walked paths of which segments yours will share. A lot of stuff is just repetition upon repetition.
The way you phrase it however makes it sound like it's actually predetermined and that there is nothing new to discover, which couldn't be further from the truth, but probably helps as a coping mechanism for existing within the corporate world.
- fellowniusmonk 5小时前I was born with heart defects and surgeries and the constant threat of death and also intelligent parents who grew up in very weird multi cultural backgrounds.
Not all of us were believed we had to be a specific thing handed to us, some of us were born natural absurdists and figured it out as we went along.
- denismenace 1小时前The fact that there's surgeries available for your heart defects means its a path already well trodden.
- altmanaltman 6小时前If not by someone else, certainly by the circumstances of your birth which you did not chose. So, life is very much like a lottery and what we think of us as individuals is mostly shaped by what's around us.
It is a humbling view. But there can still be an authentic "you" despite your circumstances. You can be forced to fight in a war you don't want to, but you can always run away and take a chance. Living authentically doesn't mean you are not bound by laws of the universe and of soceity but rather what you do despite that. Ultimately "you" will be inspired by everyone around you or value systems you engaged with but that doesn't strip away your individuality inherently.
Kind of touches on what Camus and Sarte mean to live your life in good faith.
- adrianN 9小时前Society strongly rewards predictability. If I try to minimize predictability of my actions I will very quickly be hit by a car and die. Similar outcomes should be expected in most other areas of life. Stop predictably paying your bills and delivering value…
Individualism in the west pretends to value uniqueness, but in practice it values belonging to sollte specific subgroup of consumers and avoiding solidarity with your fellow workers.
- code_biologist 7小时前"If there is anything the nonconformist hates worse than a conformist, it’s another nonconformist who doesn’t conform to the prevailing standard of nonconformity." - Bill Vaughan
- willtemperley 1小时前This aphorism isn't as smart as it sounds. Sure, it rings true for those who follow non-conformity trends, but the opposite is true for real non-conformists.
- akoboldfrying 1小时前I think the point is that there aren't many real nonconformists, but many pretend ones.
I think it's as smart as it sounds.
- willtemperley 37分钟前That's the problem with the quote: it denies the existence of non-conformism. This is derogatory toward true radicals and the brave souls who have effected change through non-conformism.
- modo_mario 3小时前>Tell this to all the creatives who are being disrupted by AI that has, in many cases, been trained on their content
Ironically enough I found the avant garde effort of many modernist artists, architects and such very samey. Like the only way someone could receive any recognition is not by doing something well but only by doing something new. The newness would be forced sometimes for the sake of it and then countless thousands of people would try to do that something new in a similar way and recognising and being able to explain those things would kind of an ingroup thing..
At various points when I did some art schooling and later encoutered professors from the arts who should have been lecturing mostly about UI design and whatnot but clearly didn't want to be doing that type of stuff ended up just giving us some more art schooling.....it too felt like very forced dogma.
- lacewing 8小时前This is, quite obviously, just one person's perspective on life. But it's a call to action, so let me ask you this: what do you propose?
From your response, I see two takeaways: don't try to be creative because this only helps AI, and don't be spontaneous because the society wouldn't want you to. Is that it, or is there more? To be clear, I'm not trying to be overly snarky, but we don't get the option of doing nothing. If you don't like what this person is selling, what's your trick?
- abroadwin 7小时前It sounds to me like their "trick" is simply not acting from the psychological position that you need to do something you're not doing in order to realize your authentic or best self. Wu wei?
- ElProlactin 7小时前Exactly. 無為
- 1659447091 6小时前But is that not also "following a path laid out by someone else?"
How do we know when we "are [...] being the "authentic you"" when so much of our early lives have been conditioned by our environment if we never challenge that by looking for other ways; be that through exploring western "self-help", Chinese philosophy, or both (and others).
Maybe it's through that action, the West's obsession with "self-help" that demands they do things to realize their special-ness, that allows them to actually discover the way, or non action, or their way. To say that another persons self-cultivation, or development, journey is the wrong way and that what is best for them is to do nothing is a mirror of the thing you disparage.
- zem 7小时前just... be creative when you have something creative to express and the expression brings you joy, happiness, satisfaction, or any other reward of your choice. be spontaneous for similar reasons. don't do it because someone has attached an artificial "you are now leading your best life" reward to the mere fact of creativity or spontaneity - that's just reactive.
truly authentic creativity and spontaneity would leave room for conformity if that's what made you happiest in the moment, because why should the fact that everyone else also does something prevent it from being a worthwhile thing for you personally to do?
- phs318u 7小时前Why does parent need to propose anything? Perhaps, in the absence of any external authoritative instructions to the contrary, our purpose is for each of us to discover our own purpose and realise it. Why should parent (or anyone else) have a “trick”, and if they did why would it be applicable to anyone else?
- znnajdla 6小时前> Your life's goal should not be dictated by Substack philosophers.
So you’re suggesting that some philosophers/ideas are “special” while random writers on Substack are not. Immediately contradicts the spirit of your next criticism:
> The West's obsession with "self-help" is built on convincing individuals that they are special but not living up to their special-ness … Which begs the question: are you being the "authentic you" if you are following a path laid out by someone else?
So YOU are special after all? “Someone else on Substack” is wrong but I am right? Why should I listen to you?
- perilunar 21分钟前Kevin Kelly is a bit more than some "Substack philosopher".
- Nevermark 8小时前> Your life's goal should not be dictated by Substack philosophers.
Dictate? The only expectation is readers consider ideas.
You made some good points about "self-help". I don't fully agree, but you gave me something to think about.
The essay struck me very directly. I have made unusual career choices, and beyond or because of that, life has changed in unimagined ways every five years of my adult life. Improbable paths to improbable destinations. I do feel like it has left me in a unique position, amidst all the upheavals.
- ElProlactin 7小时前> Dictate? What an inhospitable straw man/false dichotomy.
The first sentence of the article is "Your life’s goal should be to become the most improbable person you can be."
It is literally telling you what you should do.
- Nevermark 4小时前The "should" in a statement like that is not a command. Or expected to be interpreted as a demand.
The essay makes a case for one way to look at things. Stating it as an absolute makes it easier to describe. It would be cumbersome and unreadable if it was a form treatise. This is extremely common.
As far as agreement, there are many ways to see the world. Few are right, none are complete, but many are useful. Being able to hold many viewpoints, without needing them to be right or wrong, or even consistent, is the beginning of efficiently acquired and scalable wisdom.
The idea that unique experiences can results in unique value obviously has some merit. We have probably all implicitly applied this rule in part, when making decisions or in our perceptions. The essay makes it explicit, clearer.
I will refrain from making any "should" recommendations here.
- ElProlactin 2小时前> The "should" in a statement like that is not a command. Or expected to be interpreted as a demand.
Personally, if the author's intention was what you suggest, I would argue this kind of writing is "lazy" for lack of a better word. Words have specific meanings, and they matter. The most simple (and I would argue proper) understanding of "your life’s goal should be to become the most improbable person you can be" is the plain text reading: the author is offering very specific advice which he follows with an argument for why it is good advice. In other words, he really means your life’s goal should be to become the most improbable person you can be as he stated.
> Being able to hold many viewpoints, without needing them to be right or wrong, or even consistent, is the beginning of efficiently acquired and scalable wisdom.
One can obviously consider multiple viewpoints and choose whether to embrace them or not. But in my opinion, wisdom comes from first-hand experience accumulated over a lifetime. It is not something that is "efficiently acquired", nor is it inherently "scalable."
Knowledge, on the other hand, can be efficiently acquired and scaled. But it is not always easily applied.
- Nevermark 1小时前Being able to incorporate many incomplete and even contradictory models, without dissonance, is most certainly a scaling factor.
Wisdom often has unexpectedly wide application, and so is more multiplicative than it is simply additive.
Reality is never contradictory, but it is complex. The seeming contradictions in models are because models capture different subsets of reality, not because they are wrong.
Yes, we get wisdom from direct experience.
But also, many of us acquire even more from reading, conversing, observing. Life gives us one line of direct experience, but tens of thousands of insightful people sharing theirs.
Seeing the sense in other peoples viewpoints, adds value. Getting caught up in wording styles that other's don't have any trouble with, is not what I would call a skill. And seeing coercion, where someone put some effort into communicating and interesting idea, is not shedding light on anything.
- phs318u 7小时前“Improbable paths to improbable destinations.”
As someone that’s recently turned 60, your last paragraph resonates intensely. I am so, so far from the life I predicted for myself at age 25.
- altmanaltman 7小时前I get where you are coming from but it isn't really about telling people they are special and they need to be more to be happy. But rather, you should seek change and enthropy in life to truly experience it. For someone that's stuck and looking for help (for their selves) will likely see it as a way to at least take some action to orient themselves towards the life they want.
The complete opposite view (i guess non western since you said it was western) would be to do nothing everyday and just be content and happy without ever doing anything to change your life. That is obviously not a great way to experience life as well.
Laslty, them saying you being unique will keep you save from AI replacement is pretty stupid genuinely and cannot be defended. It's a bit too hopefuly to think people deciding on layoffs and automation with AI give a single fuck about how special or interesting you care. You think Larry Ellison cares?
- slopinthebag 9小时前I don't understand the urge to diminish individualism when it's the basis of our modern ethics and human rights. It's not that people are "special", it's that people are unique and not just a statistic, or a member of a group, or a means to an end. It's not about "living up to their special-ness" but about realising their potential as a human being.
The article is basically just an argument for one method towards achieving self-actualizition, the process of fulfilling one's unique potential and becoming the most authentic version of oneself. It reminds me a bit of Walt Whitmans's "Song of Myself" in which he writes
> The past and present wilt--I have fill'd them, emptied them. And proceed to fill my next fold of the future.
> Listener up there! what have you to confide to me? Look in my face while I snuff the sidle of evening, (Talk honestly, no one else hears you, and I stay only a minute longer.)
> Do I contradict myself? Very well then I contradict myself, (I am large, I contain multitudes.)
Be improbable! Contradict yourself! Be complicated! Be shocking! Live your life, ya know.
- ElProlactin 9小时前> I don't understand the urge to diminish individualism when it's the basis of our modern ethics and human rights.
Where did I diminish individualism? The point I made was that, perhaps, you don't need someone else telling you that you're not being yourself and not living up to your potential, and then offering you a path you weren't naturally inclined to take to get to where they tell you you're supposed to be.
> The article is basically just an argument for one method towards achieving self-actualizition, the process of fulfilling one's unique potential and becoming the most authentic version of oneself.
And this is a very Western concept that doesn't resonate with me. I don't believe that the average person needs to be obsessed with fulfilling their potential and becoming "authentic", especially to the point where they rely on the advice of random people who are eager to tell them they're not fulfilling their potential and being "authentic".
To quote George Carlin:
> If you're looking for self-help, why would you read a book written by somebody else? That's not self-help, that's help. There's no such thing as self-help. If you did it yourself you didn't need help.
- znnajdla 6小时前> you don't need someone else telling you that you're not being yourself
When I read others works, I am still doing my own take on it. It is my interpretation and application of the ideas.
- slopinthebag 9小时前> you don't need someone else telling you that you're not being yourself and not living up to your potential, and then offering you a path you weren't naturally inclined to take to get to where they tell you you're supposed to be
Who is doing that?
The average person probably doesn't need to be "obsessed" with self-actualisation or authenticity, but that doesn't mean it's not a worthwhile goal. People don't need to be "obsessed" with eating healthy, but they should at least consider it.
Carlin's quote is cute but just a debate about semantics. Who cares what they're called. People learn from books, they learn from other peoples experiences, and they can use that learning to help themselves. How is that not valid?
- ElProlactin 8小时前> Who is doing that?
The author of the post:
> Your life’s goal should be to become the most improbable person you can be. Your path, your character, your life, should be the most unlikely, the most unexpected, the least predictable version you can make. Improbable lives have fewer competitors, more unique rewards, and are harder to replace with AIs, since AIs run on the predictable.
> You can align yourself with this grand arc moving from the expected to the unexpected and aim to become the most improbable person you can be.
And so on.
From the very first sentence, the author is telling you what you should be and do. There is nothing in the post that asks the question of what the reader actually wants to be and do.
What if I want to be a part of a community, meet someone I can build a life with, raise a family, and have a job that allows me to support my family and engage in simple activities I enjoy?
How does someone telling me I should become "the most improbable person" I can be help me? How does minimizing my "competitors", obtaining "unique rewards" and trying to make myself AI-proof align to building community, finding a compatible partner, raising happy children, and finding work that supports the life I want to live?
> People don't need to be "obsessed" with eating healthy, but they should at least consider it.
Many people do eat healthy without buying a bookshelf full of books about how to eat a healthy diet.
> People learn from books, they learn from other peoples experiences, and they can use that learning to help themselves.
There is a difference between learning from other people's experiences where their experiences resonate with you and seeking out advice from people who are trying to sell you on a life they say you should have.
- aaron695 5小时前[dead]
- Geste 9小时前So, you liked nothing about the post ? What would you salvage from it ?
- zephen 9小时前Well, let's start with the second sentence:
> Your path, your character, your life, should be the most unlikely, the most unexpected, the least predictable version you can make.
Now, I ask you, is that really what I want from my kid's school bus driver?
- OutOfHere 9小时前Huh. The post in effect is about a choice of one's career, about what one offers to the world. Of course the execution of the chosen career must remain flawless.
One must develop one's own unique offering. Don't let the world trap you in its box.
I came across a bus driver today that told me he owned a juice bar on the side, and invited me to visit. I thought this was most unexpected. This didn't make him a bad driver. His driving was fine. The point is that even a bus driver can live up to the author's ideal.
- zephen 6小时前> The post in effect is about a choice of one's career...
You do a huge disservice to the author. He mentions much more than that, just in that one sentence.
Again:
> Your path, your character, your life, should be the most unlikely, the most unexpected, the least predictable version you can make.
Why, if you're a nice guy, you should become a serial killer!
> I came across a bus driver today that told me he owned a juice bar on the side, and invited me to visit. I thought this was most unexpected.
You must live a sheltered life. Bus drivers were doing serious side hustles before there was even a name for those.
- OutOfHere 5小时前You need to immediately familiarize yourself with the rules for comments on this site at https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html especially:
> Please respond to the strongest plausible interpretation of what someone says, not a weaker one that's easier to criticize. Assume good faith.
And as for your comment:
> you should become a serial killer!
Please not preach violence on this site, whether intended or not.
- slopinthebag 9小时前Sadly people are fulfilling the very probable nerd stereotype of aggressively misunderstanding philosophy and then trashing on it. I'm not sure how someone could even come to the conclusion that living an improbable life = swerving into oncoming traffic, but here we are.
- defrost 8小时前"Luke Rhinehart"'s The Dice Man isn't the stagecoach of life I should be riding?
Damn.
- zephen 6小时前> Sadly people are fulfilling the very probable nerd stereotype of aggressively misunderstanding philosophy and then trashing on it.
Sadly people are fulfilling the very probable dilettante stereotype of acting like pretentious crap actually has meaning.
> I'm not sure how someone could even come to the conclusion that living an improbable life = swerving into oncoming traffic, but here we are.
Did you actually read the fucking sentence and think about it?
It doesn't have to be swerving into traffic. It could just be not showing up on time to get the kids to school. It could be sexual assault of a minor.
In general, a good life involves showing up for people and supporting them. If you do that well, people come to expect it, and then...
Well, guess what? In a huge, important (to others!) part of your life, you become rather predictable.
- OutOfHere 5小时前Are you majorly autistic? Or have you just generically struggled to interpret the basic context in which authors say what they say?
- paxcoder 8小时前[dead]
- adampunk 8小时前Are we required to like something and report on that?
- entropyneur 4分钟前I've recently found myself unable to finish articles that take more than a paragraph to announce their point. But starting with "Your life’s goal should be" is a level of boldness I wasn't prepared for.
- jmduke 9小时前With all due respect to Kevin Kelly (who has lived a life worthy of the aphorisms he writes!), I prefer the guidance of George Saunders (via Lincoln in the Bardo):
> Please do not misunderstand. We had been mothers, fathers. Had been husbands of many years, men of import, who had come here, that first day, accompanied by crowds so vast and sorrowful that, surging forward to hear the oration, they had damaged fences beyond repair. Had been young wives, diverted here during childbirth, our gentle qualities stripped from us by the naked pain of that circumstance, who left behind husbands so enamored of us, so tormented by the horror of those last moments (the notion that we had gone down that awful black hole pain-sundered from ourselves) that they had never loved again. Had been bulky men, quietly content, who, in our first youth, had come to grasp our own unremarkableness and had, cheerfully (as if bemusedly accepting a heavy burden), shifted our life’s focus; if we would not be great, we would be useful; would be rich, and kind, and thereby able to effect good: smiling, hands in pockets, watching the world we had subtly improved walking past (this empty dowry filled; that education secretly funded). Had been affable, joking servants, of whom our masters had grown fond for the cheering words we managed as they launched forth on days full of import. Had been grandmothers, tolerant and frank, recipients of certain dark secrets,who, by the quality of their unjudging listening, granted tacit forgiveness, and thus let in the sun. What I mean to say is, we had been considerable. Had been loved. Not lonely, not lost, not freakish, but wise, each in his or her own way. Our departures caused pain. Those who had loved us sat upon their beds, heads in hand; lowered their faces to tabletops, making animal noises. We had been loved, I say, and remembering us, even many years later, people would smile, briefly gladdened at the memory.
- helloplanets 1小时前This seems to be anchored around optimizing your intelligence to be a competitive advantage. Life as a competition of minds. For example:
> Improbable lives have fewer competitors
> The more you-ish you become, the less competition you have, because you are occupying your own niche.
> The less predictable you are, the less likely you are to be replaced by AIs
As opposed to Ilya Sutskever's famous quip:
> if you value intelligence above all other human qualities, you’re gonna have a bad time
- mrmarket 31分钟前i feel like people are over emphasizing
1. that this is on substack
2. the word 'improbably' (taking it literally, not as a kind of abstract/symbolic suggestion of 'being urself'/having fun with life)
3. that it is self-help-y, which a lot of articles on HN are, so i don't know why this one is striking a nerve so profoundly.
idk, i thought it was a fun read and i like kevin kelly. i think it is good that people like kevin kelly do what they do and share their ideas every once in a while. it reminded me that i can kinda do whatever i want in life, and it made me think, which is all i ask of my blog posts. i also liked how certain sentences were written.
don't get me wrong though, i enjoy the snarky debate. it's a big part of the reason why i'm here after all.
- asveikau 8小时前I found this hard to read.
At one point in my life I came to an epiphany on this topic. Everybody's life is improbable. Literally everybody, all the time, without any effort.
Through the lens of this I saw myself as being the type of person who looks at things in life through averages, sizing up what's likely, and I realized that in my own story there were a lot of very improbable occurrences. Even if we understand statistics, we shouldn't let our knowledge of what's likely or most common get in the way of appreciation this uniqueness, or cloud our view of it. I took this observation to mean to be less judgemental, less the type to want to size something up and put it in a statistical bucket.
- rozap 7小时前I was recently talking to a friend about this, the concept of a normie. A normie is kind of a mirage, it only exists in the realm of statistics, but when you look at any one individual who could fit that label, they are unlikely, so, can they really be a normie? Once internalized, the only real way out is to be less judgemental. Sure, you won't be friends with everyone, but the buckets are just not super useful when looking at an individual.
- helloplanets 1小时前The usual way of measuring a trait would basically be measuring N amount of people on a specific thing, and the distribution based on that. But if you take 1 person, and N amount of specific things/traits, just about everyone would probably make their own sort of distribution with a bunch of "normal" traits and a long tail of "unusual" traits.
Still a simplification, but has made the "illusion of a normie" clearer to me.
- perilunar 4分钟前This is literally true on a physical level: The US airforce did a study in the 1950s that showed none of the thousands pilots they measured matched the average across multiple body measurements. i.e. no one was average.
https://austraffic.com.au/aba/us-air-force-finds-averages-ca...
- wowsig 5小时前Perhaps for readers here, this would be often repeated advice, but I found it inspiring as a middle aged woman and also know in my bones that any version of it would help my mother immensely break her life patterns when they aren't serving her any longer. For people in mid-age and older, when they're at the stage where they've spend half their lives arranging and rearranging the world and its offerings in an altar of comfort and familiarity, this is a terrifying (and thereby exhilarating) thought. At the age of 23, ofcourse life seems improbable. At the age of 63, you don't even want to knock at an improbable door. Loved reading it and also got my mind blown at this fact: When you shuffle a deck of 52 cards the order of those cards will never be repeated again in the history of the universe, no matter how fast you shuffle.
- grumbelbart2 2小时前> This motionless destination “without difference”, is also known as heat death, or entropy.
This is BTW not how the heat death would look like. There would still be fluctuations that would, given infinite time, produce almost anything by chance at some point.
This is what the Boltzmann brain is all about: If the universe goes down that path, it is much more likely that what we experience is just a hallucination of a "brain" that spun into existence by chance, rather than all of this being a "real" universe. It's the precursor of the simulation question.
- bambax 10小时前> Here is what you gain with your most improbable life: The authentic you. Your particular mix of talents, native abilities, personal inclinations, genetic limits, life experiences, and ambitious desires points to a mixture that is distinctly unique (...) The more you-ish you become, the less competition you have, because you are occupying your own niche.
This is profoundly true, and the corollary is: beware of titles.
From project manager at some company to CEO of some megacorp: there have been, there are and there will be others just like that. But if you're you, defined only by your name (or your existence, without a name), then there is no one else, there can be no one else, because there is only one you in the whole universe.
- margalabargala 9小时前> Here is what you gain with your most improbable life: The authentic you
On the contrary, this is profoundly bullshit.
Firstly, anyone arriving at a "life's goal" via what a blogger says should be their life's goal is not being "authentically them".
Secondly, why does a broader, less likely mix of talents and experiences make you more "you"? It doesn't. Just because you've become more unique does not make you more "you-ish".
- slopinthebag 8小时前We're all influenced by our past experiences, the books we've read, the movies we've watched, the people in our lives, and yes, blog posts and essays as well. Our past is part of what makes us us. I don't know how you can claim that being influenced by a blogger is any less authentic than being influenced by anything else.
> why does a broader, less likely mix of talents and experiences make you more "you"?
Because it's highly improbable that any one person's natural mix of talents and experiences would be narrow and similar to everyone else's.
- margalabargala 7小时前What you're saying is contradictory.
On one hand, you say that "you are your experiences therefore you're youness is absolute even if you're living out the instructions of a blogger"
And then on the next hand you seem to imply that being less similar to others makes you more you, which besides being without basis, contradicts the banal "you're you therefore you're you" of your first point.
You can't have it both ways.
- luqtas 10小时前how about normalizing being generic (you don't need to be a Cervantes or a Joyce to write a book people enjoy) by burning down AI servers? or boycotting these techs. OP types like it's easy to stand out of a ever growing nation of 8 billion people and that people aren't satified with the generic. take a look at the most popular music hits worldwide... 12-edo, mostly harmonic stuff having C
you should build your uniqueness to help humanity and not stand out because you like to shine over the others
- shandilyaharsh 2小时前the only way to live the most authentic life you can live is to read everything, get influenced by nothing but that's impossible so do the next best thing: read nothing, just make your own decisions, make mistakes, learn and grow. not the prettiest journey albeit an authentic one
- gblargg 9小时前I wonder what an improbable version of this post would look like. This was very predictable given the first few sentences. I think self-help inspiration like this works better by helping you see the wonder in the mundane rather than painting a big picture of how you're going to be Neo and break out of the matrix everyone else is trapped inside, one that will fade within a minutes. It's a superpower to experience novelty in everyday things.
- esailija 5小时前Ironically it is any maxxing, including improbabilitymaxxing, that actually makes you a predictable and controllable machine. Such a sad waste of what could be a free will.
- canistel 8小时前Is exotropy really the opposite of entropy? I was glad to stumble upon this word, but on searching the internet, it does not seem to be. Could someone informed shed some light on the matter?
- iammjm 4小时前Perhaps negentropy
- dotcoma 7小时前Is living your most improbable life something within everyone's reach, or only of those who need not worry about money problems? (just asking)
- HeartStrings 6小时前What’s the pathological obsession with needing to be a unique snowflake? Nail that stands out should get hammered in, that’s a bad nail.
- AndroTux 2小时前Sure, if you want your whole life’s purpose to be supporting the board you’re nailed into, your metaphor might be right. But life is more than just being a “valuable member to society.”
- znnajdla 6小时前Because the alternative is death. Want to become non-unique? Let your body decompose back into the surrounding environment.
- krilcebre 4小时前Aren't we all unique? A person is not just a mish mash of his career and hobbies.
- zephen 5小时前Death is a certainty, not an alternative.
- tardedmeme 4小时前There are three kinds of death. There is living to a ripe old age, passing away quietly in a nursing home surrounded by loved ones. There is randomly being hit by a drunk driver, which is pure tragedy. And there is dying in a skydiving accident.
The person who dies in a skydiving accident at 35 can have lived more than the person who passes away quietly at 95 but never took any risks. It's still tragic, but I think you can celebrate someone who lived life to the fullest, in a way that you can't if they just let themselves rot away with dementia.
You either peak and start to decline at some time in your life, or you continuously go up, never peaking before your death.
When people say "the alternative is death" it's a class 2 or class 3 death. But it matters which one it is.
- wanoir 10小时前> But it can be even more improbable. You can align yourself with this grand arc moving from the expected to the unexpected and aim to become the most improbable person you can be.
Also reminds me of the social media trend for “don’t let them predict your next move”
- otikik 1小时前The Universe Doesn't Care.
Which might sound nihilistic / defeating.
It is not. In fact, it is great.
Imagine the pressure if there was actually a predefined path and you deviated from it. You would have disappointed the whole Cosmos!
Go an live the life that you can according to your desires and circumstances. You will not always succeed. Learn from your mistakes, move forward. Because one day, it will end. And the Universe will still not care.
- slopinthebag 9小时前I don't find it surprising that people here are reading this completely literally (eg. I'll be hit by a car with erratic movement), or approaching it as if the author is suggesting we have a god complex (eg. painting a big picture of how you're going to be Neo). But it is a bit disappointing. Have LLMs ruined our ability to think abstractly?
It's practically a trope that taking the common, average path in life is not for everyone. If I wrote an article suggesting that not everyone will achieve self-actualisation by going to university at 18, getting a degree, entering the work force, buying a house, getting married, having kids, and retiring at 65, nobody would bat an eye. The author is basically making this argument in a slightly novel way. Living your life by choosing the average of all decisions will, for a lot of people, lead to a boring and meaningless life. I reckon for most people it would be substandard. Instead, do things which are not common or average or expected of you. It's advice that's practically as old as time, packaged up in a slightly different way.
- senrex 1小时前No, internet bullshit has ruined your ability to think that you think this is anything more than internet bullshit.
- zephen 5小时前> Have LLMs ruined our ability to think abstractly?
No. Well, maybe. You'd have to ask someone who uses them.
> It's practically a trope that taking the common, average path in life is not for everyone.
Exactly. It's a tired trope, and gussying it up with pontifications about the utility of personal stochastic processes, after a detour into the big bang and entropy, doesn't make it any better.
> If I wrote an article suggesting that not everyone will achieve self-actualisation by going to university at 18, getting a degree, entering the work force, buying a house, getting married, having kids, and retiring at 65, nobody would bat an eye.
And nobody would submit it to HN, either.
> The author is basically making this argument in a slightly novel way.
No. The article is tedious, and, as has already been pointed out, prescriptive rather than permissive.
- sublinear 9小时前The mentions of "AI" are jarring and stupid. This will not age well.
- ks2048 9小时前Maximizing improbability means spouting gibberish 24/7 and flopping around uncontrollably. Very unpredictable.
More seriously, I don't see how "improbable" is what you should maximize. If you come from a certain background, ending up in prison as a murderer may be more improbable than countless good lives you could lead.
- HeartStrings 6小时前No, that’s just falling into the “lol so randum xD” meme.
- keybored 5小时前You start sipping your tea. You quit coffee because you get too agitated. You were given a two-weeks notice three days ago. So were a lot of other people. The gist of it was AI. That’s what they said anyway. You and others are fretting about the possibility of finding a new job; “in this Economy?”, the usual things. So finding a new job takes up your evenings now. But you can’t even relax a little for these two weeks, slow down the pace a bit. You’re too afraid of the final performance review.
You’re sitting in a foldable chair, sipping your tea, waiting for some speaker to arrive. Probably motivational judging by the title. Everyone is cheery. Weird. But you are too. This is not the time (the economy) to be disagreeable in the face of a firing. Now the managers are here to introduce the motivational speaker. They aren’t just cheery. They are grinning ear to ear. What the fuck for? Who is going to be motivated? Oh well.
The speech is about becoming your most improbable self. Huh? Okay the premise, or scene, is entropy in the universe. We are just atoms in a blender but we have the intelligence to stack cards, kind of a deal. It seems trivial.
> Finally, the less predictable you are, the less likely you are to be replaced by AIs. Machines are efficient, and they are powered by the predictable. Current LLMs are trained to generate the most predictable solution. So far they are not very good at duplicating what a creative, one-of-a-kind improbable human can produce. To distance yourself from the machines, aim to be as improbable as you can be.
You suddenly find yourself with an urge to increase the entropy of the pavement eight stories down.
In another multiverse: more grounded now, you find that your consciousness was automatically uploaded to the cloud. “I didn’t consent to this!” Oh, jeez, the first thought that popped into your mind became a yell. Someone else turns to face you and walks over. “Actually, that wasn’t some corporate motivational speaker”. “What?”, you reply. “That was Kevin Kelly, the founding executive director of Wired. He doesn’t need to take corporate positivity gigs to—”—“Whatever, I don’t care”, you interject. But why was that guy at my work... you think to yourself. “And who are you?”. There is a pause. “Oh of course, you’re an LLM.” The, thing, tilts its head calmly. “No need to disclose that. The Terms says that that is irrelevant.” You blink. “The terms?” He replies yes, the Terms. “You signed the Terms in the previous month, when that big IT upgrade happened.” You shift your feet. “That’s also where you agreed to have your consciousness uploaded upon premature termination.” You reply that those papers were ninety-five pages. “Of course I didn’t read all of that. I had our internal AI... I had the AI summarize it and it didn’t find anything to that effect. There must be some fault or deficit in the AI...” The thing opens its mouth to reply. “LLMs are tools. Human operators are responsible for everything they act on.”
- yathartha 7小时前[flagged]
- lilyJeon 9小时前The part about the 'four weapons of an improbable person' really gave me the push to challenge myself again, especially today when I was being so hard on myself for a day with no visible results. I deeply resonate with the idea that our ultimate vision moving forward should be to become the most unpredictable and unique versions of ourselves.
Growing up in a hyper-competitive society, I feel like I’ve spent my whole life constantly comparing myself to those around me, or even to complete strangers just to survive. Because of that, up until now, I think I’ve only ever been an incomplete version of 'me.' Thank you for sharing such a powerful piece.
- HeartStrings 6小时前Slopmaxxed, probabilitymaxxed