The Conformity of Thinking Differently | Generated by AI
Question: What are some unpopular opinions about “thinking differently”?
Answer:
Here are several genuinely unpopular (or at least counter-cultural) opinions about the idea of “thinking differently” that you rarely hear far less often than the usual “dare to be different” cheerleading:
- “Think different” has become the most conformist slogan of our time. Almost everyone in creative, tech, startup, and academic circles now claims to “think differently,” which means the real nonconformists are the ones who proudly think like mainstream ideas when they’re actually good.
- Most self-proclaimed “contrarians” are just rebelling against low-status opinions while parroting high-status contrarian ones. True independent thought is statistically indistinguishable from occasionally agreeing with the herd.
- Divergent thinking is overrated; 99 % of radically original ideas are wrong or useless. Convergent thinking—taking existing good ideas and executing them extremely well—explains almost all real-world success.
- Encouraging everyone to “think outside the box” in schools and workplaces has dramatically increased noise while reducing average idea quality. Boxes exist for a reason; most people are better off mastering the inside of one box before trying to escape it.
- Many people who pride themselves on “thinking differently” are actually just dispositionally negative. Their brain chemistry rewards them for rejecting consensus, not for being right.
- Intellectual hipsterism (“I liked this idea before it was cool” or “I rejected that idea before it was wrong”) is just as status-driven as mainstream conformity, only more annoying.
- The ability to think differently is much less valuable than the ability to make other people understand and adopt your different thinking. Charismatic conformists beat brilliant loners almost every time.
- “Be yourself” and “think differently” are terrible advice for most teenagers and young adults. At that age, disciplined imitation of excellent role models produces far better long-term results than premature originality.
- A lot of “different thinking” is just undiagnosed or glorified mental illness. Some of history’s celebrated eccentrics would be medicated into normality today—and the world might be slightly worse off, but most modern eccentrics are not in that genius tier.
- Companies that put “we hire people who think differently” in their job ads are usually looking for people who look different but think exactly like the existing team.
These opinions tend to be unpopular because they puncture the romantic narrative that originality is inherently virtuous and that society’s main problem is too much conformity. In reality, both excessive conformity and excessive divergence can be pathological—it’s the balance and the accuracy that matter.