I have a confession to make. I write a personal finance blog, but I rarely read other personal finance blogs. There is a reason for that. Here is the reason. I find that when anyone gets involved in any community, they will (subconsciously) begin to adopt social ways of thinking which is almost like osmosis. This leads to the same reasoning. Moreover, it leads to thinking about the same things at the same time while reaching the same conclusions. In other words, herd behavior is innate. When people in such a herd are as busy as people usually are when there is measurable work pressure – more, bigger, faster, there is very little time to go outside the box when most of the time is devoted to following other things. peers.
There is a similar phenomenon in scientific research. Feynman (a famous physicist) once remarked that the best way to get new information about a problem was to ignore previous literature and just come to your own conclusions. Obviously this should be done after reaching a certain expertise and a certain maturity, otherwise crackpot theories are available. In the same way, Einstein did his greatest work revolutionizing the understanding of special relativity, Brownian motion, and the photoelectric effect while working in the patent office with little or no contact in the ivory towers. I think it is accepted that something like Einstein’s miracle would never happen today (that’s why it was considered a miracle). With the publishing or disappearing idea of modern education and its expectation to attend several conferences and present many papers each year (rather than having a new idea every other year) it has been made almost impossible to step back and look at the basics. Instead, everything looks the same as before.
It’s hard to say which system is better when they are so different. In a mass production system, agents differentiate themselves by quantity and relative expectations. Popularity in the current mass market philosophy clearly requires rocking the boat as little as possible while giving credit to the program through imitation or citation. The key here is to tell the end consumers what they want to hear. This is done by telling them what they already know. For example, consider modern pop music; it’s a completely forgettable experience, but it’s a popular musical favorite. It is widely used because it is familiar and people know what to expect
. This results in a herd that moves slowly but steadily and does not move. It serves a purpose. For example, blogging about index funds, career development tips, and listing more ways to save money reinforces the situational thinking. The active purpose is to ensure that people are doing well. This is naturally a very valuable product that can generate a lot of advertising revenue.
Original ideas cannot be mass produced. I can’t say that my posts are only original but as some of them are, it’s hard to come up with new information. New ideas can always be found in different ways. These areas are many because they are not harvested by experts. This does not mean that all original ideas are useful. However, the ideas that come up don’t all work and that’s why I tend not to read them
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