I think that it is a mistake to treat “individualism” (or “introversion”) as a 1-place word. And that it is critical for the rationalist community to understand this.
How you feel among other people, and how you interact with them, that depends not only on you, but also on those other people. To quote a friend: “I thought I was introverted, but I guess I just never met the right kind of people before.”
To provide an analogy with computer programming, imagine that you are the best programmer at your high school. Your classmates can barely produce code that runs, you develop applications for fun in your free time. It will make sense for you to ignore your classmates in this area, because you have nothing to learn from them. -- But a decade later, when you get your first programming job, the situation is different: your colleagues are good at their work (not necessarily all of them), and there are even more smart people outside, so you have to learn using google and StackExchange, etc. If you remain stuck in the “I have to do everything alone, because everyone else is incompetent” mindset, you will soon find yourself outcompeted. The strategy that worked for you once, doesn’t work anymore; it’s time to update and get new skills.
I think this is what happens to many smart people in mostly stupid society. They learn, during childhood, that the best strategy is to think for themselves, try to do things alone, never rely on anyone, etc. It is a strategy that works well in a certain context. But when the context changes, many of them are unable to change the strategy accordingly. -- Mensa is an archetypal example, but many of us are not much better. Too focused on signalling superiority to environment, we fail to notice an opportunity to actually cooperate. Which actually becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, because… well, if the other person refuses to cooperate with you (working under the common “knowledge” that cooperation between you is impossible), then indeed, the cooperation between you becomes impossible. But only because it requires two people to change their strategy at the same time, something that probably neither of them did before, and neither of them has any practice at doing… yeah, it can be difficult, especially on the emotional level, and concluding that “it’s impossible (and unnecessary) anyway” is the convenient way out.
Your “individualism” is partially how your environment has made you. It is not the only way things could be. Now it’s time for you (us) to start making your (our) own environment.
I think that it is a mistake to treat “individualism” (or “introversion”) as a 1-place word. And that it is critical for the rationalist community to understand this.
How you feel among other people, and how you interact with them, that depends not only on you, but also on those other people. To quote a friend: “I thought I was introverted, but I guess I just never met the right kind of people before.”
To provide an analogy with computer programming, imagine that you are the best programmer at your high school. Your classmates can barely produce code that runs, you develop applications for fun in your free time. It will make sense for you to ignore your classmates in this area, because you have nothing to learn from them. -- But a decade later, when you get your first programming job, the situation is different: your colleagues are good at their work (not necessarily all of them), and there are even more smart people outside, so you have to learn using google and StackExchange, etc. If you remain stuck in the “I have to do everything alone, because everyone else is incompetent” mindset, you will soon find yourself outcompeted. The strategy that worked for you once, doesn’t work anymore; it’s time to update and get new skills.
I think this is what happens to many smart people in mostly stupid society. They learn, during childhood, that the best strategy is to think for themselves, try to do things alone, never rely on anyone, etc. It is a strategy that works well in a certain context. But when the context changes, many of them are unable to change the strategy accordingly. -- Mensa is an archetypal example, but many of us are not much better. Too focused on signalling superiority to environment, we fail to notice an opportunity to actually cooperate. Which actually becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, because… well, if the other person refuses to cooperate with you (working under the common “knowledge” that cooperation between you is impossible), then indeed, the cooperation between you becomes impossible. But only because it requires two people to change their strategy at the same time, something that probably neither of them did before, and neither of them has any practice at doing… yeah, it can be difficult, especially on the emotional level, and concluding that “it’s impossible (and unnecessary) anyway” is the convenient way out.
Your “individualism” is partially how your environment has made you. It is not the only way things could be. Now it’s time for you (us) to start making your (our) own environment.
This is obvious in hindsight and I thank you for bringing it up.