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I'm going to post an essay I wrote, it's difficult on Twitler due to the character restrictions. It's about the formation of totalitarianism and group think.
Mass Formation, the Psychology of Crowds, and the Covidian Cult
Army of Shadows - 10 October 2021
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1/ Isolation & lack of social bonds
2/ Lack of meaning-making & sense-making
3/ Free-floating anxiety
4/ Consequent free-floating psychological discontent, frustration, & undirected aggression.
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Joining the struggle against an enemy, especially an invisible pathogen, provides members of a society in free-fall with a certain mental apparatus.
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Western societies have bestowed a kind of freedom without clear guidelines and many people have been cast adrift, searching for leaders and models
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Subsequently, in- and out-groups emerge.
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3/ Social alignment and control under certain norms and values which constitute a collective consciousness.
The first element is very interesting. A secular religion appears to be emerging
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Like company moats, your personal moat should be a competitive advantage that is not only durable—it should also compound over time.
Characteristics of a personal moat below:
I'm increasingly interested in the idea of "personal moats" in the context of careers.
— Erik Torenberg (@eriktorenberg) November 22, 2018
Moats should be:
- Hard to learn and hard to do (but perhaps easier for you)
- Skills that are rare and valuable
- Legible
- Compounding over time
- Unique to your own talents & interests https://t.co/bB3k1YcH5b
2/ Like a company moat, you want to build career capital while you sleep.
As Andrew Chen noted:
People talk about \u201cpassive income\u201d a lot but not about \u201cpassive social capital\u201d or \u201cpassive networking\u201d or \u201cpassive knowledge gaining\u201d but that\u2019s what you can architect if you have a thing and it grows over time without intensive constant effort to sustain it
— Andrew Chen (@andrewchen) November 22, 2018
3/ You don’t want to build a competitive advantage that is fleeting or that will get commoditized
Things that might get commoditized over time (some longer than
Things that look like moats but likely aren\u2019t or may fade:
— Erik Torenberg (@eriktorenberg) November 22, 2018
- Proprietary networks
- Being something other than one of the best at any tournament style-game
- Many "awards"
- Twitter followers or general reach without "respect"
- Anything that depends on information asymmetry https://t.co/abjxesVIh9
4/ Before the arrival of recorded music, what used to be scarce was the actual music itself — required an in-person artist.
After recorded music, the music itself became abundant and what became scarce was curation, distribution, and self space.
5/ Similarly, in careers, what used to be (more) scarce were things like ideas, money, and exclusive relationships.
In the internet economy, what has become scarce are things like specific knowledge, rare & valuable skills, and great reputations.