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Emmett Shear: Life After Twitch, Jeff Bezos Lessons & AI Doomsday Odds

My First Million

NOTE

The Pressure to Silence our Inner Idea Generator

As children, we have a natural ability to generate ideas without limitations or self-censorship. However, as we get older, we are pressured to stomp down on bad ideas and avoid saying dumb things. This pressure disrupts our inner idea generator. While generating ideas, most of them may be bad or have something obviously wrong with them. The advice to have no bad ideas is not accurate; instead, we should learn not to stop at the bad ideas. Society installs a sensor that discourages us from being silly or stupid, but some people, like the speaker, never had that sensor installed. The process of losing our creativity happens when we receive negative feedback or internal disappointment for trying something and not doing it well. Over time, we do it less, become less skillful, and continue the cycle of avoidance. This is why people believe they are bad at certain things when in reality, with practice and positive reinforcement, anyone can excel at them. The speaker believes they were lucky to have an environment that rewarded their ideas, leading them to be constantly in a loop of generating ideas and improving their creativity.

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