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backus's profile
John Backus
John Backus
John Backus
@backus

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John Backus

@backus

Seeking alternative compression. Hopefully wrong on average. Shameless. Started @getcognito and @bloom

San Francisco, CA
Joined August 2012

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    1. John Backus‏ @backus May 8

      As a student, seemed like everyone was told to be more confident. Self-consciousness in HS; imposter syndrome in college In startup world, conversation is about over-confidence. Hubris of big ideas, need for compromise in the work place, assumed failure mode for decision making

      1 reply 0 retweets 6 likes
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      John Backus‏ @backus May 8

      As far as I can tell, the only way to make everyone happy is to operate stoically and only take conservative risks. Strong social incentive to be humble even if it means your strengths go unnoticed or under-noticed. Not worth it!

      2:40 PM - 8 May 2018
      • 7 Likes
      • Rahul Ramchandani Jesse Leimgruber Ben Backus R.A.R.E Art Labs Tequehead michael_nielsen rogerclark
      3 replies 0 retweets 7 likes
        1. John Backus‏ @backus May 8

          When I was younger, I thought I could balance out overconfidence by also voicing your uncertainty and asking for lots of input / criticism. While they don't cancel out, I still think this is a nice way to operate.

          0 replies 0 retweets 5 likes
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        1. New conversation
        2. Julia Galef‏Verified account @juliagalef May 8
          Replying to @backus

          This is basically the exact opposite of my experience with the startup world!

          1 reply 0 retweets 5 likes
        3. John Backus‏ @backus May 8
          Replying to @juliagalef

          Really? Would love to hear more. FWIW, I didn't mean that startup founders aren't self-conscious / uncertain as well. Just saying I don't see any culture of worrying about that.

          1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes
        4. Julia Galef‏Verified account @juliagalef May 8
          Replying to @backus

          I meant it's common wisdom among founders that you should be irrationally overconfident in yourself and your projects. (When I probe deeper, they often end up modifying that into a more nuanced position. But I think it's fair to call the glib first take the common wisdom)

          1 reply 0 retweets 1 like
        5. John Backus‏ @backus May 8
          Replying to @juliagalef

          Yeah, in terms of actually understanding the odds I think that is usually true when you dig deeper

          1 reply 0 retweets 1 like
        6. John Backus‏ @backus May 8
          Replying to @backus @juliagalef

          Different framing: • As a student, mental model was that our peers didn't believe in their thoughts and would under-share. • After dropping out, the mental model flipped to startup peers on average loving their own thoughts a bit too much and likely over-sharing.

          1 reply 0 retweets 3 likes
        7. Devon‏ @devonzuegel May 8
          Replying to @backus @juliagalef

          Having spoken to both of you (at least tangentially) about this, I think you're talking about slightly different things here

          2 replies 0 retweets 4 likes
        8. Devon‏ @devonzuegel May 8
          Replying to @devonzuegel @backus @juliagalef

          I *think* the kind of confidence John is talking about is in the self-esteem, "put yourself out there!" sense, whereas Julia is talking about the "what probability does this have of being true?" sense of the word. The two are correlated but not the same thing

          2 replies 0 retweets 2 likes
        9. John Backus‏ @backus May 8
          Replying to @devonzuegel @juliagalef

          If only we had two separate words for this...https://medium.com/@jbackus/dissecting-confidence-certainty-vs-motivation-to-act-1acdb3212b25 …

          0 replies 0 retweets 3 likes
        10. End of conversation
        1. michael_nielsen‏ @michael_nielsen May 8
          Replying to @backus

          Not sure _anything_ makes everyone happy! My friend (& PhD supervisor) friend Carl Caves used this as a personal motto:pic.twitter.com/f0bSUsRwOW

          0 replies 0 retweets 2 likes
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