I remember the first time I saw one of those dialect maps of the United States.
The best one is
Fellow Contrarians Unite!
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I love this note. I, too, used to like to think of myself as a contrarian. Now I apply a simple heuristic to help put whether an idea is “truly” contrarian into perspective (h/t to Jared Dillian of The Daily Dirtnap): the idea should be “obviously” stupid/“bad”. Stupid/“bad” to the point of making people angry or at least making them doubt my basic competency.
Very few ideas seem to both pass this simple test and be investable. Which to me is pretty consistent with this idea that what we like to think of as contrarianism is mostly just a cartoon.
Be careful the Cardinals don’t break into your barn. Those mean little f*ckers like to pick fights for no good reason. ; )
I think it’s a good standard. Might be a bit restrictive, all considered, but that’s probably the right approach.
There truly is little new or original under the sun…and even that thought is not terribly original.