Modern Non-Conformity and Contarianism in the Age of Silicon Valley | Hacker News Reader

Modern Non-Conformity and Contarianism in the Age of Silicon Valley

jamesgallagher.app

15 pointsjamesg_oca4 comments

This article reads like a rebelious rant of a teenager not wanting to go to school. Yes one can be happy living like a stoic (see main page) in the woods on minimal food and water. Or practicing zen. And this is a valid choice for many.

But the fact is that besides repeating dozens of times how "non conforming" the author is nothing much more meaningful is provided here.

It strikes me that either you legitimately can't relate but might think you can, or you aren't empathizing with the author (nothing wrong with that, sometimes we legitimately can't put ourself in their "shoes"), or you may possibly be unintentionally gatekeeping nonconformity. None of that is meant as an offense to you but just the 3 impressions I get from your comment after reading the article.

James provides many meaningful thoughts, and even gave a disclaimer that this is something he's still thinking through more.

One of those meaningful thoughts I felt was particularly provocative was this:

> I also learned that being a successful non-conformist is easier when you have security.

It's easy for the rich kid from a well-connected family to be a nonconformist and still succeed at what they hope to do in life. Take a poor kid, who is also well-connected but not necessarily to those comparable to the rich kid. Poor kid might have a lot of social capital among their community such that they can get things done, but compare that to rich kid who can always fall back on a family friend hiring them for a junior management position where they'll get paid orders of magnitude more than the poor kid... Now imagine that poor kid with low to no security being a nonconformist.

For them, that could go one of two ways:

1. Ostracized from community for going against the grain/not getting in line

2. They get lucky and some aspect of nonconformity brings them great success and even wealth

Which of those two do you think happens more frequently?

So, I politely disagree. While it does seem that he's sharing some raw thoughts, there are some good clear items in there to think about.

Good article but why does the HN title include"silicon valley"?

The article doesn't include SV in its actual title, and mentions SV only twice.

Not to mention that the old SV model is mostly dead, and the new SV is highly corporate and rewards conformity.

Better article than the title would suggest.

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