Other-people-oriented

[Anon Too]

The concept other-people-oriented is not very clear to me.

To live you have to create things of value in order to be able trade with others. To do this, don't you have to know what they value? Doesn't this mean you have to be other-people-oriented to some degree?

[Elliot Temple]

On May 5, 2013, at 5:48 AM, Anon Too <ano...@yahoo.com> wrote:

> The concept other-people-oriented is not very clear to me.
>
> To live you have to create things of value in order to be able trade with others. To do this, don't you have to know what they value? Doesn't this mean you have to be other-people-oriented to some degree?

oriented doesn't mean noticing or being aware of in any way.

orient means:

> • adjust or tailor (something) to specified circumstances or needs:

you should orient your life primarily, and first and foremost, for your own preferences/values/etc

you should be self-oriented.

this implies paying some attention to market conditions. and weather conditions. and political conditions. many things.

but these things are not your focus. they are implied by being self-oriented, rational, etc

i wouldn't call a rational person weather-oriented even though a rational person does sometimes adjust his plans depending on the weather. same with other-people-oriented.

if you're only other-people-oriented in the same way as you are weather-oriented, then you're doing ok.

further, there are no contradictions between being self-oriented and any rational way of adjusting to market conditions, adjusting to the weather, etc... none of that would make you less self-oriented.

the type of other-people-oriented we're criticizing would involve being less self-oriented in some way. it would contradict being self-oriented to some extent (which is bad to do to any extent).


see also: AR on second handedness. and Feynman, e.g. "what do you care what other people think?" (book).

-- Elliot Temple
http://beginningofinfinity.com/

[Alisa Zinov'yevna Rosenbaum]

> On May 5, 2013, at 2:21 PM, Elliot Temple <cu...@curi.us> wrote:
>
>
>> On May 5, 2013, at 5:48 AM, Anon Too <ano...@yahoo.com> wrote:
>>
>> The concept other-people-oriented is not very clear to me.
>>
>> To live you have to create things of value in order to be able trade with others. To do this, don't you have to know what they value? Doesn't this mean you have to be other-people-oriented to some degree?
>
>
> oriented doesn't mean noticing or being aware of in any way.
>
> orient means:
>
>> • adjust or tailor (something) to specified circumstances or needs:
>
> you should orient your life primarily, and first and foremost, for your own preferences/values/etc
>
> you should be self-oriented.
>
> this implies paying some attention to market conditions. and weather conditions. and political conditions. many things.
>
> but these things are not your focus. they are implied by being self-oriented, rational, etc
>
> i wouldn't call a rational person weather-oriented even though a rational person does sometimes adjust his plans depending on the weather. same with other-people-oriented.
>
> if you're only other-people-oriented in the same way as you are weather-oriented, then you're doing ok.

> further, there are no contradictions between being self-oriented and any rational way of adjusting to market conditions, adjusting to the weather, etc... none of that would make you less self-oriented.
>

Maybe being emotion-oriented is wrong too. By this I mean guiding ones actions so as to try to produce a particular feeling/emotion. After all, emotions/feelings are possibly important input, like the weather and ideas from others, but they are not YOU.