We're all highly susceptible to influence.
Why? Because we are social and self-preserving. We don't just do best in community, we actively need and seek it out.
Thus, it's no wonder that we want to be part of a community.
And to fit in that community, we take cues of behaviour and mindsets from others around us, especially those who are respected or, at least, somehow elevated in the community.
Since this is all hardwired into us, and we've been picking up cues since we were born, we get really good at it. Practically an instinct.
Which means that it's also impossible to be free of influences.
What I learned is:
The first thought that enters our heads is a result of external influences, whether it's upbringing, culture, the people I hang around with the most, etc.
We can call this programming, conditioning, internalisation, or what we like, but it's kind of in-built and very difficult to override.
What's really important is what we do, say, and/or think after that first thought appears.
That is what makes us who we are.
Being the Curious Kid Taught Me Many Things. Some Good, Some Not so Good.
I was the curious kid in school.
Not just in terms of wanting to explore and find out more, but also in the other sense - a bit of an oddball and, though some find interesting, most find difficult to understand or relate to.
It never really bothered me that people didn't "get" me, because I didn't really "get" people either.
I remember writing (in a now-lost exercise book) that I found it frustrating to be unable to discuss things with my peers. I can't remember the exact words, but I recall something about nuclear fusion and the future of human civilisation and energy use.
And that being pre-Internet days, it took a lot of effort to find information in the library.
The good thing was that I learned to refine search terms.
It was an old search system (was it a Dynix?), and our libraries had an octopus mascot on the welcome page. Not sure if anyone else remembers this. It was quite similar to the picture attached to this post.
And when the Internet became widespread, the search term practice I've had since I was a kid turned out to be incredibly useful.
Instead of learning to communicate with people, I somehow learned to communicate with computer systems instead.
And today, with AI and machine learning, more and more people are learning to communicate with computer systems.
Who would've thunk?
Of course, I eventually learned to communicate better with people, but that's a story for another time. Though I say so myself, it's a pretty interesting one.
