(2007-11-15) Rao Be Idea Person

Venkatesh Rao on how to (survive as an) Idea Person. That is not something you choose. It is a condition you have to manage, like diabetes, once you recognize it... If you are an idea person, chances are extraordinarily high that you will die without having had any impact whatsoever on the world, because of the demand/supply economics of ideas that I’ll cover later. So you have to develop the right philosophical attitude (hint: Sisyphean), which I’ll cover in the treatment/management section.

The condition also creates a voracious appetite for a very unhealthy kind of intellectual diet: heavy on concepts, a little lighter on facts (favoring qualitative and historical rather than quantitative and current) and rather light on how, or skills/procedural knowledge (though we are quick skill-learners as a breed, we rarely get beyond ‘amateurish’ at anything). That’s like having a congenital inclination to overeat fats and simple carbs with too little complex carbs and protein, and no exercise to integrate the protein into muscle and maintain it. Again, sufferers don’t choose that mix of cravings.

Idea-personhood requires lifelong management. It is unlikely to get you anything of value, but it still needs to be managed to prevent madness. Here are the things you need to do. (see list)

For somebody with a valuable skill, it is possible to completely ignore the idea people strewn like beggars around the landscape, and have a good life just working on validated, low-risk mature ideas. The demand for good, big ideas isn’t as high as people think, because of the simple constraint of execution bandwidth. One Einstein (a classic idea person) can occupy a couple of generations of more-skilled peers.

Unfortunately, the medical condition is more common than economics demands. There are about 10 times as many idea people as the world needs, and even among those — say 3/10 — who manage their conditions soberly, only 1 will get anywhere. Nine will need to live with a life of zero impact.I think I manage my condition about as well as I can, but I still think my odds of having an impact-ful life are just 1 in 3, and to a large extent, the outcome is going to be random. A Sisyphean sense of humor is necessary. Fries help too.

See also: Generalist, 2009-07-31-NewportRemarkableLife