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One of the most disorienting things in the world is that the labor theory of value is false. Highly competent people can work really hard on something difficult…that’s totally worthless.
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For a long time I’ve had intuitions like “but…they did SO much tedious technical work! They gave up sleep! They gave up time with their families! Who would DO that for a useless project?” People getting paid, that’s who.
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Or: “But they’re so smart and knowledgeable and conscientious! They’re *better at this than me.* Wouldn’t they have noticed if they were putting in all that work on a doomed enterprise?” Seems like…not always!
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“What do you mean that company is fake? I’ve met people there! It has real engineers building real things! Things that are hard to build!” …things nobody will actually use, unless they’re subsidized or flashy demonstration showpieces.
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“But how can that claim be false! I met a guy who believes it, who does this stuff for a living, and he’s really smart and knows a lot and works really hard!” …nope
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“Wouldn’t a person just get demoralized and quit if they started to believe their work was pointless? Who *hustles* for a doomed project?” I still don’t get the psychology of it, but empirically people do this.
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Type P people are only creative when they’re unconsciously convinced what they are doing is significant+important. Type Q people are only creative when they’re unconsciously convinced what they’re doing is insignificant+unimportant. I’m type Q 😬 P/Q because A/B is taken.
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Yeah that’s probably the core of it. I know people with crippling, paralyzing levels of P-ness or Q-ness. People are very attached to their sense of their own significance. I’d probably die instantly of a panic attack if a wizard told me I was the Chosen One.
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yeah, I'm pretty hard Q - there's lots of projects I've done over the years that were ill fated and I mostly don't seem to mind? the fun is in the verbs: I enjoyed doing good work and solved the puzzles and got paid, actually publishing is whatever