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vgr's profile
Venkatesh Rao
Venkatesh Rao
Venkatesh Rao
@vgr

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Venkatesh Rao

@vgr

Conversational account. For work follow @ribbonfarm, @breaking_smart, @artofgig. Tweets are 90% vacuous views, apathetically held. Mediocritopian. IKEA builder.

Los Angeles, CA
venkateshrao.com
Joined August 2007

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    Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 11 Jan 2019
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    Depressing thought. For at least 20 years I’ve been consciously solving for being more lucky, and it’s worked much better than I expected. But in the process I’ve kinda gotten used to being lucky, and that has made me stupider. I was much smarter when I was average-lucky.

    9:13 PM - 11 Jan 2019
    • 2 Retweets
    • 49 Likes
    • Alex Dave Mongan Sam Wilson u/6 ✪ Kevin Griffin Chris Reid Phaethon
    8 replies 2 retweets 49 likes
      1. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 11 Jan 2019
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        Meant to add. I think I hit a luck recession sometime middle of last year. Lost my Midas touch. It has yet to come back. Partly because I suppose I’ve turned a bit ambivalent about wanting it back.

        3 replies 1 retweet 13 likes
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      2. David Walker‏ @walkerdavide 11 Jan 2019
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        Replying to @vgr

        Please. You’re much smarter than the vast majority of your audience. This is like groveling loudly when you make a bogey on a par 4. Keep on keepin on.

        1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes
      3. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 11 Jan 2019
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        Replying to @walkerdavide

        I don’t really compare myself to my audience. That’s not particularly meaningful to do. I mostly compare myself to people who scoop me on insights I’ve been digging for. They get there faster long term because they don’t rely on luck as much as I do.

        3 replies 1 retweet 5 likes
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      2.  ❄️ 🌨️ ☃️Dr MadeOfMistake (IQ 211, ~19 Hands) 🎄 🎅 🎁‏ @madeofmistak3 11 Jan 2019
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        Replying to @vgr

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teela_Brown … ... descended from "lucky" ancestors, six generations of whom were born as a result of winning Earth's Birthright Lottery. .... she'd led such a charmed and worry-free life that she was emotionally immature and unprepared for "harsh reality."

        1 reply 1 retweet 4 likes
      3. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 11 Jan 2019
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        Replying to @madeofmistak3

        It me

        0 replies 0 retweets 1 like
      4. End of conversation
      1. New conversation
      2. Arvind Iyer‏ @longhandnotes 11 Jan 2019
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        Replying to @vgr

        Is that realization part of why you now advocate mediocrity? In practice, 'cultivating habits of excellence' doesn't look too different from 'solving for being more lucky'. Both establish a limiting 'new normal'. Maybe mediocrity minus new normals trumps excellence plus them.

        1 reply 1 retweet 1 like
      3. Arvind Iyer‏ @longhandnotes 20 Jan 2019
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        Replying to @longhandnotes @vgr

        Arvind Iyer Retweeted Venkatesh Rao

        Can we say that the below thread is a “case for ensemble mediocrity” whereas your tweet above is an argument for mediocrity at the level of the individual?https://twitter.com/vgr/status/1087186955467554816 …

        Arvind Iyer added,

        Venkatesh Rao @vgr
        One reason I champion mediocrity is that alternative is obviously dystopian: Upper class of exceptional superhumans Middle class of robots Lower class of broken, institutionalized people who failed to be exceptional, and regressed right past human mean to “driven crazy.”
        Show this thread
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      2. Game Respecter‏ @Anachrofuturist 11 Jan 2019
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        Replying to @vgr

        Do you think that luck is a real thing? Or if it’s not real but useful because optimizing for luck causes you to benefit yourself in an actually real way, what is that way?

        1 reply 0 retweets 1 like
      3. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 11 Jan 2019
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        Replying to @Anachrofuturist

        It’s real.

        1 reply 0 retweets 3 likes
      4. Show replies
      1. Nathaniel Eliot‏ @temujin9 11 Jan 2019
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        Replying to @vgr

        Solving for serendipity means you'll get more good results, but less command of where those results occur. A less lucky but smarter Rao would have made a far smaller dent in the universe. Maybe it would have been deeper in one direction, but it would also have been less broad.

        0 replies 1 retweet 3 likes
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