Nielsen’s Extreme Thinking

Blogging is a fascinating past-time. Who would have thought? I just read bits and pieces of an essay on Extreme Thinking.

Here’s a fascinating quote:

The key to keeping this independence of solitude is to develop a long-term vision so compelling and well-internalized, that it can override behaviours for which the short-term rewards are significant, but which may be damaging in the long run.

Update: Independence of solitude: I didn’t know this expression. Found 600 or so hits on Google. Seems that maybe the expression comes from Ralph Waldo Emerson.

What I must do is all that concerns me, not what the people think. This rule, equally arduous in actual and intellectual life, may serve for the whole distinction between greatness and meanness. It is the harder, because you will always find those who think they know what is your duty better than you know it. It is easy in the world to live after the world’s opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great person is one who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.

Published by

Daniel Lemire

A computer science professor at the University of Quebec (TELUQ).

2 thoughts on “Nielsen’s Extreme Thinking”

  1. Hi Daniel: “independence of solitude” is, indeed, from Emerson – I actually give the
    longer Emerson quote in my essay, with an attribution, which you must have missed. I
    certainly recommend the Emerson essay, “Self-Reliance”, from which the quote comes.
    Overall, I don’t find Emerson to my taste, but found that one essay enjoyable and
    thought-provoking.

    Reply

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