Conscientiousness is massively overrated as a measure of character (at least by conservatives), but it's a life saver when you're busy.
Especially if you tend to be disorderly.
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People making fun of Jordan Peterson's "clean your room" dictum miss that it's great life advice. People ignore it precisely because it's so prosaic.
It only becomes idiotic when you claim it's a necessary prerequisite for e.g. participation in politics.
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"Clean your room so your life doesn't start fraying at the edges," is great advice.
"Clean your room because I arbitrarily decided this is some kind of fundamental character test," less so.
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I have to really work on staying on top of things. It's a chore that I've got a strong instinctual revulsion towards (parenting fail + personality, probably).
But when I do keep track properly, my quality of life soars. Everyone, even artists & me, abhors mess on *some* level.
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If you zoom out a bit and retain the idea of stupid-but-good advice, this is how cults and religions are formed. Most of the profound stuff is dumb.
Intellectualism has its claws so deep in our culture, you can't get a simple idea past anyone. Yet that's where the magic happens.
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Of course, this also makes it so easy to be a charlatan. You don't have to understand or practice anything you preach. All you need is the words.
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