Here’s to the Misfits

http://blog.alexmaccaw.com/heres-to-the-misfits

by sachitgupta • 14 years ago

147 72 14 years ago

blog.alexmaccaw.com

blhack• 14 years ago

Hearing this now makes me cringe.

Apple is so, so, so far at the opposite end of the spectrum than what the commercial championed.

tokenizer• 14 years ago

But that's their image. That's why they can get away with charging what they do. Their design is still considered, "rogue/maverick"...

dredmorbius• 14 years ago

Oddly enough -- that was also Microsoft's self-image for many, many years.

The were the maverick to IBM's stodgy conformist.

Not that I saw them that way.

rhizome• 14 years ago

I don't know about "rogue/maverick," but I'll take "good" in a world of companies still rehashing 20 year-old laptop designs.

deveac8• 14 years ago

How? Because they have a large market share in certain product categories?

I see that kind of out of the box thinking and pure passion in many of their most recent designs. The iPhone is a perfect example. Look at where that paradigm shifting product has taken them, and think about how that device is only 5 years old. I see the same transformative execution and design in their iPad, and now the rest of the OEMs are desperately trying to catch up instead of having delivered. Intel had to invent a new product category just to first describe, and then compete with the Macbook Air.

When I try to imagine what that quote means for Apple, I always thought it meant designing the absolute best products for people, no matter what, -no compromises. That they have delivered beyond what anybody could have possibly expected is a realization of that quote, not a negation to me. But maybe you take it to mean something else? They've certainly changed the world...

mrich8• 14 years ago

Because they are trying to use a broken patent system to corner the market, instead of trying to compete.

They are the most aggressive in IT doing this, so in a way they are misfits.

victork2• 14 years ago

Hey another one of the "I was too different/intelligent for normal school", backed up by a TED Talk.

Here on HN we have one of these articles every week. I think that all of the "misfits" should acknowledge one thing: school is not for YOU it's for everybody to have "similar" chances in life.

Yes, yes you're all beautiful trouble makers with a mission to change the world. Now do things please.

Gosh I feel snarky today :)!

unimpressive• 14 years ago

> Gosh I feel snarky today :)!

No, your post is pretty on point. I think everyone here feels this way to an extent.

Don't be sated by your dreams; reality feels better.

Androsynth2• 14 years ago

why do misfits have to do things or change the world? Just be a misfit for the sake of being a misfit. Just be yourself.

You're trying to fit misfits into the same type of homogenous box that school systems put kids in.

daenz• 14 years ago

> Just be a misfit for the sake of being a misfit

Please don't do that. The world has enough people trying to be unique and quirky for the sake of it.

> Just be yourself.

Yes, do this.

johnchristopher3• 14 years ago

> Just be yourself

Good luck with that.

http://threekeywords.com/quotes/category/author/tocqueville/

jastr• 14 years ago

It wasn't pointing out that certain people are more "different/intelligent", the idea was that everyone is different (and correspondingly intelligent) and should pursue that.

Jare2• 14 years ago

Having met Alex and chatted with him over dinner a couple weeks ago, I'd say he does NOT see himself as a troublemaker, he just wants to DO (and DOES) a lot of stuff. I'd normally advise everyone to at least try a year of college before giving up on studies altogether, but if you are going to drop out during high school, please do it with the passion, energy and focus of this guy.

kika3• 14 years ago

Funny that the US immigration system actively repels the misfits of this kind (dropoffs). If you don't have MS degree, good luck getting the green card (it takes many years vs. 1 year or less for MS). I believe this will be Alex's problem too (he's British, right?).

jmduke• 14 years ago

I know its hip to declare oneself a misfit and throw away the shackles of traditional academia, but what's the point of this post?

Being your 'weird self' means, by definition, that you have to be a misfit? Doesn't this imply than anyone who enjoyed or benefited from high school/college isn't being genuine? Am I missing something, or is this a puff piece for being offbeat?

crusso• 14 years ago

The point depends on how you want to take it.

You could think of it as the author's attempt to rationalize away his own society-perceived negative aspects (some real, some imagined) of being a misfit.

You could also think of it as a motivational post for others who feel like they don't fit in who might find a little inspiration in his words and in the story he related. Sometimes a few good words can be the difference between someone committing suicide vs turning things around and facing life head on.

MaxGabriel• 14 years ago

Maccman, not a huge deal, but when you said "A different doctor might have put her on medication and told her to calm down." you're quoting Robinson.

jtbigwoo• 14 years ago

When I look back at the younger people I've helped hire, the biggest success factor was not necessarily whether he/she had been dedicated to school, per se. It was more important that they had dedicated themselves to something. A good grade from a good school is a nice indicator of that dedication, but it isn't the only indicator. It doesn't matter if a person is a misfit in one or two areas, but someone that dropped out of everything they tried generally didn't perform well for us, either. Looking back, I suppose it meant that those people were still casting about for their true calling.

Confusion2• 14 years ago

  Because they change the world.

Which retroactively gets them assigned 'misfit' status, as a sort of honorary name. Franklin, Churchill, Einstein, Noether and Darwin, to name just a few, all weren't misfits. They were simply eminently capable people that believed in themselves. You don't need to be a misfit to achieve greatness and we don't need to call everyone that achieves greatness a misfit.

eevilspock3• 14 years ago

Whether or not Einstein was a misfit, the physics establishment considered his ideas crazy (see Thomas Kuhn's The Structure of Scientific Revolutions). By definition, a misfit is one that doesn't fit into the mainstream.

The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man. -George Bernard Shaw

Confusion2• 14 years ago

  By definition, a misfit is one that doesn't fit into the 
  mainstream.

I don't think one becomes a misfit by having and defending unique insights. I have a friend that has a Ph.D. in philosophy. He tends to say things that take some time to process and may initially cause a "what?" feeling. As any Ph.D., he did his small part in changing our understanding of the world. I wouldn't call him a misfit, just extraordinary.

Concerning that quote by Shaw: I believe taking that literally is mistaking a funny quip to make you think for a deeply profound eternal truth. Shaw does not seriously intend to say that e.g. Churchill was not a reasonable man.

I actually own a copy of Kuhn's book. I found it very enlightening. He's not a misfit either.

code_chimp• 14 years ago

Dang, not a tribute to Danzig and Company.

pinchyfingers• 14 years ago

My thoughts exactly, this was the most exciting link on the front page for about 3 seconds, then it was the most disappointing.

The capitalization of 'Misfits' in the title looks like a proper noun.

Anyway, to make up for this, I will tribute the Misfits:

Hey, HN! I raped your mother today! And it doesn't matter much to me, as long as she spread!

swagv• 14 years ago

It's unfortunate that whenever someone mentions the word "TED, I immediately tune out and discredit.

specialist• 14 years ago

It's just TV. I let other people figure out what's worth watching. (Very little.) Collaborative filtering is great.

roopeshv• 14 years ago

if we were to follow the trend in software engineering/computer programming/technology companies, we want more doctors who drop out from medical school to be surgeons.

kika3• 14 years ago

Wrong analogy. It assumes that the human body have the same degree of complexity as, say, coffeescript. In no way. To properly (without killing the patient) and reliably open and then stitch the human body requires years of study and practice. While coding JS in vim requires, like 3 months, of which 10 weeks is studying vim :-) I'm not speaking about why you're going to open the body (diagnosis) or what do you code, that's a different story.

Just the plain barrier to entry.

prodigal_erik• 14 years ago

Knuth's code has bugs. NASA's code had bugs. Programming as we conceive it is so close to impossible that it takes years of study and diligence to aspire to only being pretty bad at it. We're just reaching the quicksilver and bloodletting phase of our discipline's evolution, and someday our successors will look back and cringe just as doctors do.

bengillies• 14 years ago

Here's to the Misfits?

Here's to the people who fit in. Here's to the people who try really hard but never quite get there. Here's to the people who don't fit in but always wanted to. Here's to the people who do the dirty jobs cos they they pay the bills and no-one else wants to. Here's to the underdog. Here's to the loser. Here's to the person who actually finishes their degree. Here's to the 50 year old who's still innovating. Here's to the 25 year old who isn't.

Different people are different. Let's celebrate all of them not just the chosen few from the subgroup we've marked out as "special" this year.

minikites• 14 years ago

I'm not cut out to be a misfit. And that's okay.

kitb• 14 years ago

I cannot for the life of me find a source which puts John Cleese and John le Carré in the same school.

Void_• 14 years ago

Instant karma article.

ak39• 14 years ago

Love that video, but I fault it because it doesn't include our own living legend Nelson Rohlihlahla Mandela. :( A true misfit who refused to accept the status quo.

And, in case you don't know, Rohlihlala in fact means "he who shakes the tree"! A name given to him at birth.

Talk about destiny!

JonnieCache2• 14 years ago

ATTN all those self-identifying as misfits at early stages of their career:

The reason you are not fitting properly may just be because you are being an asshole. Please be constantly aware of this fact as you go around imposing your special snowflakeness on everyone else.

cjeane• 14 years ago

For some of us 'not fitting properly' is an internal struggal and has nothing to do with our interactions with others. You can be a misfit and be well liked by your peers. I suggest you take your own advice.

JonnieCache2• 14 years ago

All I asked was awareness :) They key word in that sentence was "may."

Although for those of us struggling internally in social situations, more self-doubt is probably not what is needed.

corin_• 14 years ago

> What the school didn’t tell admiring visitors though, is that the vast majority of those famous alumni had been expelled.

Would love to see a citation for that. From what I can see of the two examples given, one (Cleese) wasn't expelled and one (Le Carré) didn't go to the school that I presume he's talking about (Clifton College)?

Here’s to the Misfits

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