Rick Sanchez and Sam Altman on the Power of Delusional Self-Belief
Every breath I take without your permission raises my self esteem.
“It never ceases to amaze me: we all love ourselves more than other people, but care more about their opinion than our own.” — Marcus Aurelius
“When you face someone’s insults, hatred, whatever … look at his soul. Get inside him. Look at what sort of person he is. You’ll find you don’t need to strain to impress him.” — Marcus Aurelius
Rick Sanchez Hackathon Scene (Click to Play)
For context, this scene follows Rick Sanchez of the show Rick and Morty giving a honest critique of Heistcon when he’s challenged to a heist.
He experiences what many people face when they say something unpopular.
The crowd boos him.
However, he’s unfazed and retorts with:
"Every breath I take without your permission raises my self esteem."
This statement points to a man proud of expressing his individuality, even if it’s unorthodox — a contrarian.
The scene also illuminates that the crowd is easily persuaded by what’s popular as seen when he says,
"Your boos mean nothing. I've seen what makes you cheer.”
They don't think before accepting a belief and this fickleness has led to them adopting the obnoxious.
That quality is Rick’s stark contrast.
He decides what’s cool/good and what isn't for himself — within his standards.
He’s the proprietor of quality judgments; they go with the flow.
This makes their opinions unworthy of consideration. They also point to a poignant logical conclusion.
If everything they perceive as good is disgusting to Sanchez, it follows that everything they view as bad is divinely estimable to him. Thus, the more hateful they are, the more his pride swells, as he gets to affirm his good taste and judgment.
So, it’s necessary to evaluate the quality of the criticism you receive and give it a proper response. For you’re better off being indifferent to what clowns say — even using their disapproval as a source of pride, which I promise is a great feat of your brilliant intellect. For "you're better off not giving the small things more time," and attention, "than they deserve," Marcus Aurelius would add.
This bids a correlate in Stoicism when Epictetus asks us,
"Who are those people by whom you wish to be admired? Are they not these whom you are in the habit of saying that they are mad? What then? Do you wish to be admired by the madmen?"
I don’t think so, dear reader, and you too can revel in this power with a similar perspective.
This reflection was inspired by Sam Altman’s essay on How To Be Successful recommended by the great . Here’s the text.
Enter Sam Altman:
Have almost too much self-belief
Self-belief is immensely powerful. The most successful people I know believe in themselves almost to the point of delusion.
Cultivate this early. As you get more data points that your judgment is good and you can consistently deliver results, trust yourself more.
If you don’t believe in yourself, it’s hard to let yourself have contrarian ideas about the future. But this is where most value gets created.
I remember when Elon Musk took me on a tour of the SpaceX factory many years ago. He talked in detail about manufacturing every part of the rocket, but the thing that sticks in memory was the look of absolute certainty on his face when he talked about sending large rockets to Mars. I left thinking “huh, so that’s the benchmark for what conviction looks like.”
Managing your own morale—and your team’s morale—is one of the greatest challenges of most endeavors. It’s almost impossible without a lot of self-belief. And unfortunately, the more ambitious you are, the more the world will try to tear you down.
Most highly successful people have been really right about the future at least once at a time when people thought they were wrong. If not, they would have faced much more competition.
Self-belief must be balanced with self-awareness. I used to hate criticism of any sort and actively avoided it. Now I try to always listen to it with the assumption that it’s true, and then decide if I want to act on it or not. Truth-seeking is hard and often painful, but it is what separates self-belief from self-delusion.
This balance also helps you avoid coming across as entitled and out of touch.
What I’m listening to: