Rules and conformity
Silicon Valley guru Paul Graham's latest essay, The Four Quadrants of Conformism, discusses rules at a time when, coincidentally, there's a discussion about rules yet again at 7 Cups.
The essay describes a simple way to classify how people respond to rules, and its consequences:
One of the most revealing ways to classify people is by the degree and aggressiveness of their conformism. Imagine a Cartesian coordinate system whose horizontal axis runs from conventional-minded on the left to independent-minded on the right, and whose vertical axis runs from passive at the bottom to aggressive at the top. The resulting four quadrants define four types of people. Starting in the upper left and going counter-clockwise: aggressively conventional-minded, passively conventional-minded, passively independent-minded, and aggressively independent-minded.
I think that you'll find all four types in most societies, and that which quadrant people fall into depends more on their own personality than the beliefs prevalent in their society.
So in society generally there are people in all four quadrants. But does 7 Cups' approach to rules and conformity reflect that?
Charlie
@RarelyCharlie
I just saw this post for the first time. I know it's a little old, but it was very thought-provoking. I'm a listener (and a new one at that) so I can't speak on behalf of the 7 Cups moderators or leadership. I can say that we have a uniform training protocol, and we adhere to a "listener oath" in order to respect others no matter which of those quadrants they fall in. Since it's our task to be an active and compassionate listener, I would suspect that a few of those quadrants would not represent a "typical" listener. I hope this addresses your query to some degree, in my limited capacity! Take care, RarelyCharlie.
@MidwesternCalmSeeker Interesting!
So you disagree with Paul Graham? He thinks that it depends on a person's own personality, but you feel the beliefs prevalent at 7 Cups are more influential?
Charlie
@RarelyCharlie Made me think and I enjoyed this post. Thank you, Charlie ; )