You cannot Build an authentic expression of yourself if you’re socially influenced, i.e., you’re changing your behavior because of someone else. We’re influenced by the sitcoms we watch, people we hang out with, the things people praise us for and what people dislike us for. Alternatively, our mimetic desires get more intense the more connected we are. There are three forms of social influence:

• Conformity: Are you changing your behavior to be like others?
• Compliance: Are you doing something because others asked you to?
• Obedience: Are you doing something because you believe you’ve no other choice?

Additionally, conventional beliefs only ever come to appear arbitrary and wrong in retrospect; whenever it collapses, we call the old belief a bubble. But the distortions caused by bubbles don’t disappear when they pop.

Building Judgment demands that you step back and think from First Principles and decide for yourself. For example, Myth-making around Journalism

Footnotes

• Zero to One – Peter Thiel