Comments on: A Love of Fate

By: Nero

Nero — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 12:56:52 +0000

I’m an unabased Tucker hater, and by extension a Ryan hater, and I am loving watching Tucker’s self-certainty turn to bitterness.

By: André Branco

André Branco — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 08:50:40 +0000

Ryan, I see two things here.

One: his certainty was insane. Even with lots of personal drive, external variables could have made the book unsuccessful. The fact that the outcome was a success proves nothing about the a priori probability that it would. This is called optimism bias.

Two: optimism, even when unfounded, seems to breed personal motivation and bring more people to your side. So, one’s choice of attitude in the process changes the outcome’s probability to the better, contributing to (but not determining!) a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Which reminds me of Henry Ford: “If you think you can, you are right; if you think you can’t, you’re right, too.” I am sure it’s not that deterministic, but as I see it, this is quantitatively right.

By: matt

matt — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 14:31:08 +0000

Ug. It’s not that indecipherable. You are talking about confidence, but also the fact that he predicted his success. Yes, the confidence was necessary but it was not sufficient to create everything that happened; it took more (not to mention all the work and talent) and it’s not productive to talk about it in isolation.

Ironically enough, one of Tucker’s gifts is judgment. We talk about the confidence, you want to bottle up it or whatever, but that’s not the whole picture. There are plenty of confident douchebags that end up dumbfounded by their own eventual failure.

So taking that a step further, if we could bottle whatever it was that let Tucker predict his success, and drink it, it might just tell us what we are trying isn’t going to work.

And that could cause a lack of confidence.

This is just something to consider if you are trying to figure out the difference between Tucker and others. I’m not pushing any view or lifestyle, nor am I trying to vomit all over your blog. I just saw a perspective that was missing and tried to point it out it as succinctly as I could.

By: I.J. Reilly

I.J. Reilly — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 17:30:59 +0000

Sir,

You have been found guilty of misleading and perverting the young. I decree that you be hung by your underdeveloped testicles. – ZORRO

By: pseudo-intellectual

pseudo-intellectual — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 16:43:43 +0000

I just think that what Ryan is trying to say, is like deep. Like you can’t internalize the external. It’s like the macrocosm is way too big to be the microcosm. Somewhere in the continuum is the right answer, and you just gotta go with it. You know?

Shit, gotta go..gonna be late for my community college philosophy class.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 20:30:11 +0000

Tucker was an admitted narcissist before his rise to fame. It’s possible that this trait helped him strongly believe in the quality of his work before the rest of us caught on. There’s a certain comfort in having a huge ego. It buffers against self-doubt and insecurity. In addition, dude knows his shit. I’m not saying he’s always right, but he’s not some guy talking out of his ass. He puts in the work to study and learn the ins and outs of things. The dude might be an asshole, but he’s a smart asshole. I guess in his case intelligence, plus talent, plus ego yielded certainty.

By: Ryan Holiday

Ryan Holiday — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 13:07:36 +0000

Matt, please. You’ve managed to top Chris. What are you talking about?

By: Jen Z

Jen Z — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 09:34:18 +0000

I like this post; it’s more positive and progressive than what’s been popping up lately. The last paragraph reminds me of a Buddhist prescription for happiness, which is to give up any expectations and “want”‘s for the future and, as you wrote, live in the now.

Do you see that decision as one you can immediately consciously make, or as something to be chipped away at daily?

For me, it’s a combination of both, but I thought I’d ask.

By: Matt

Matt — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 08:46:11 +0000

Maybe most of us are just like Tucker. We know with clarity what we will do and have already factored our future achievements into who we are. We just know that ours are mediocre and that we aren’t going anywhere.

By: AEthelraed

AEthelraed — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 22:53:41 +0000

I think what Ryan is saying is to take success and failure in stride is no ‘way’ at all but an innate feeling of how to live in the moment. At least that is how I perceive Tucker’s life and what Ryan is trying to internalize.