<story><title>The Right Kind of Stubborn</title><url>https://paulgraham.com/persistence.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>wkcheng</author><text>This is a great article on the difference between an obstinate person and a persistent person, but I&amp;#x27;m not sure the general public perceives them the same way that Paul does.&lt;p&gt;What I&amp;#x27;ve found is that many times, people like the perceived confidence that obstinacy can bring.  For example, let&amp;#x27;s say that someone points out a flaw in a plan.  Person A responds by saying &amp;quot;That&amp;#x27;s not a real problem.  It doesn&amp;#x27;t matter.&amp;quot;  Person B says &amp;quot;Ok, that&amp;#x27;s interesting. Let&amp;#x27;s dig into it.&amp;quot;  Person A (the obstinate person who doesn&amp;#x27;t listen) usually comes across as more confident in this encounter, even though Person B (the persistent person who is engaging) may actually end up learning something new and getting a better result.&lt;p&gt;This is especially true in public forums.  If you go up on a stage and do a debate, the obstinate person comes across as more confident to more people.  This doesn&amp;#x27;t mean that their plan is any good. But people will vote for them, give them money, etc.&lt;p&gt;For the record, I agree with Paul&amp;#x27;s assessment that persistence is a great quality and obstinacy is not.  However, it&amp;#x27;s hard to actually get this across to the public.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>senthil_rajasek</author><text>There are certain areas where the popular opinion is irrelevant. Warren Buffet said this in a more folksy way,&lt;p&gt;“It’s very important to live your life by an internal yardstick,” he told us, noting that one way to gauge whether or not you do so is to ask the following question: “Would you rather be considered the best lover in the world and know privately that you’re the worst — or would you prefer to know privately that you’re the best lover in the world, but be considered the worst?”&lt;p&gt;source: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;time.com&amp;#x2F;archive&amp;#x2F;6904425&amp;#x2F;my-650100-lunch-with-warren-buffett&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;time.com&amp;#x2F;archive&amp;#x2F;6904425&amp;#x2F;my-650100-lunch-with-warren...&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>The Right Kind of Stubborn</title><url>https://paulgraham.com/persistence.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>wkcheng</author><text>This is a great article on the difference between an obstinate person and a persistent person, but I&amp;#x27;m not sure the general public perceives them the same way that Paul does.&lt;p&gt;What I&amp;#x27;ve found is that many times, people like the perceived confidence that obstinacy can bring.  For example, let&amp;#x27;s say that someone points out a flaw in a plan.  Person A responds by saying &amp;quot;That&amp;#x27;s not a real problem.  It doesn&amp;#x27;t matter.&amp;quot;  Person B says &amp;quot;Ok, that&amp;#x27;s interesting. Let&amp;#x27;s dig into it.&amp;quot;  Person A (the obstinate person who doesn&amp;#x27;t listen) usually comes across as more confident in this encounter, even though Person B (the persistent person who is engaging) may actually end up learning something new and getting a better result.&lt;p&gt;This is especially true in public forums.  If you go up on a stage and do a debate, the obstinate person comes across as more confident to more people.  This doesn&amp;#x27;t mean that their plan is any good. But people will vote for them, give them money, etc.&lt;p&gt;For the record, I agree with Paul&amp;#x27;s assessment that persistence is a great quality and obstinacy is not.  However, it&amp;#x27;s hard to actually get this across to the public.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>stcredzero</author><text>&lt;i&gt;What I&amp;#x27;ve found is that many times, people like the perceived confidence that obstinacy can bring.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;The problem with that method of evaluation, is that it&amp;#x27;s not First Principles. Basically, pg&amp;#x27;s essay in this case just reduces down to, &amp;quot;Is that person steered by First Principles thinking?&amp;quot;</text></comment>