Not caring what people think

A subtle form of freedom

I distinctly remember a time during my childhood where I was moving from one school to another. While at this first school, I remember being anxious and worried day to day about what kids thought of me. Worried bout my hair, my teeth, whether I looked dumb in class at Math.

I was moving from the little kid school onto the big kid school. In the big kid school the kids were way cooler, way edgier. I remember thinking that I didn’t really care what the kids from the old school thought of me any more. They didn’t matter as they weren’t as cool as the big kids at the big kids school.

My brain reflected on this as a child and expanded the thinking further. If I didn’t care about the kids opinion at the first school now that I was leaving it - would I have the same thoughts when getting to the end of big kids school? Yes - yes I would have the same thoughts.

At that point I actively started working towards not caring what people thought of me. I found that freedom of mental burden of processing what you perceived peoples perception to be of you - liberating.

From that point on I found Metal (music), long hair, in line skating, serious amounts of video gaming, building hacking tools on my PC. All of these were not cool, laughed at and derided.

I became good at not caring and gained huge happiness and freedom in doing so.

Flow state

When you elevate your conscious above your own internal thoughts to include your perceptions of what others are thinking - you break flow state.

In my mind - flow state is the ultimate place to be when thinking/doing. If you’ve experienced it - you know. By keeping in your own brain - you get to maximize your focus and nail whatever it is you are doing. Without others thoughts watering you down.

Being Yourself

I mentioned in a previous post about the huge value of you being you. You are valuable to someone or a group of people globally. Within 8 billion there are probably many people who find you - valuable. Your unique insights, life experience and perception have meaning and power to people.

Your true self is the most muddied when peoples opinions affect who you present yourself to be. Ignoring what people think of you lets raw opinion and thought come out, unfettered.

Contrarian

Not caring what people think unlocks the ability to be a Contrarian. I.e going against the flow of common thought.

I have to say there is wisdom in the crowds. From my long experience as a Software Professional there is definitely wisdom in group solutions where edge cases, ill-explored ideas are highlighted and discussed.

I find, as an investor, I like being a contrarian. I look at things differently which I believe gives me the ability to see opportunity where some others don’t.

You have to be deeply at peace with not caring about what people think of you and you have to have true, internal strength when it comes to putting your dollars on the line - betting in a different manner to the safety of the crowd.

If the crowd have a sheep mentality - they are going to be by definition - the average return. Be a sheep - get average results.