Ryu's Blog

I was discussing this with a friend the other day and a few days later saw Ben’s post on exactly the same topic. I agree with most of his views, perhaps because we share similar ideology (1). But I think it’s difficult to disentangle between what’s inherited versus conscious change in personality. It’s likely that people with certain traits are more likely and capable of changing or improving themselves than the others. I agree with my ‘particular’ friend that the essence of a person is hard to change. Not that it’s impossible, but the cognitive dissonance and the discomfort from deviating from our inherited tendency are generally large enough to counter our desire and determination to change. I think few people are willing to make the sacrifice for big change in their personality and identity. So I might have a more pessimistic view about change: I think it’s possible to improve and change oneself, but it’s much more probable for certain type of people.

(1) I follow the classical liberal (or modern libertarian) tradition of thoughts (J S Mill, Adam Smith, David Hume, F A Hayek, etc.) and am fascinated by evolutionary psychology. I also read Steven Pinker’s books. I like The Blank Slate a lot, How the Mind Works is also good but has less impact on me.