Looking at the early section on motivational advice, I was reminded of Antifragile (my review, Scott’s review). Motivational advice which assures success if one believes hard enough and encourages people to try for things despite long odds doesn’t look like it helps those individuals. If this advice is widely spread and followed, who benefits? Possibly society as a whole. If individuals in general overestimate their chances of success, try, and largely fail, then there’s a much larger pool to select from, and hopefully the best successes are better than they otherwise would be. Deceptive advice transfers antifragility from individuals to the system.
On the same subject, I’ve long felt a disdain for that sort of motivational rhetoric as trite, but I’m still not sure why. The connection to self deception provided by Galef is one possible explanation. Has anyone else experienced something similar, or have an explanation for why that might be the case?
Looking at the early section on motivational advice, I was reminded of Antifragile (my review, Scott’s review). Motivational advice which assures success if one believes hard enough and encourages people to try for things despite long odds doesn’t look like it helps those individuals. If this advice is widely spread and followed, who benefits? Possibly society as a whole. If individuals in general overestimate their chances of success, try, and largely fail, then there’s a much larger pool to select from, and hopefully the best successes are better than they otherwise would be. Deceptive advice transfers antifragility from individuals to the system.
On the same subject, I’ve long felt a disdain for that sort of motivational rhetoric as trite, but I’m still not sure why. The connection to self deception provided by Galef is one possible explanation. Has anyone else experienced something similar, or have an explanation for why that might be the case?