# Identity is often used against us | Seth's Blog

<https://seths.blog/2021/04/identity-is-used-against-us/>

- Host: [seths.blog](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/hosts/seths.blog/)
- Saved: April 15, 2021 (2021-04-16T00:45:23Z)
- Record: https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/207b8cde73c7/
- JSON: https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/207b8cde73c7.json

## What Jamie wrote

There is nothing more vulnerable than identity change. Most of us will fight like our life depends on it to protect our identity. Sadly even if that identity is detrimental to you.

> When I say I don’t like your idea, I’m not saying that I don’t like you. And if we’ve been persuaded by marketers and politicians that everything we do and say is our identity, then it gets very difficult to learn, to accept useful feedback and to change.

I've just [started reading Think Again](https://www.thingelstad.com/2021/04/14/reading-list-think.html) which tackles this head on.

I recently got an email from someone that asked me "Are you a wine guy?". It was a fine question, totally normal. It made me chuckle though as it is an identity question. I started thinking about meditation practices of detachment. That we shouldn't define our identity by something like wine. But we do it all the time. Of course you have to have identity, but being flexible with that identity, as scary as that may seem, is needed for change.

## Facts

- Kind: [Page](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/kinds/page/)

## Appears in

- [WT182: Weekly Thing #182 / Technical Debt, Identity, Neeva](https://weekly.thingelstad.com/archive/182/), Must Read

## Same host

- [The cataclysmic breakdown of networked systems | Seth's Blog](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/a766792aabec/) (seths.blog, March 11, 2021)
- [Fixing Zoom calls: Looking better and feeling better | Seth's Blog](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/767b3f4b088f/) (seths.blog, April 7, 2021)
- [You can’t beat the algorithm | Seth's Blog](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/cab3c3e90683/) (seths.blog, April 29, 2021)
- [Why the blockchain matters | Seth's Blog](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/7c8db447947c/) (seths.blog, May 13, 2021)
- [Identity and ideas | Seth's Blog](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/5a127788c649/) (seths.blog, June 3, 2021)

## Saved the same week

- [Writing tools I learned from The Economist - Built By Words](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/9b1a388e3c6c/) (builtbywords.substack.com, April 15, 2021)
- [Neeva - Ad-free, private search](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/b2cc36ffc07c/) (neeva.com, April 15, 2021)
- [Instantly parse JSON in any language | quicktype](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/570e23baec41/) (app.quicktype.io, April 15, 2021)
- [A reading list for new engineering managers - Jacob Kaplan-Moss](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/de93e6459f1e/) (jacobian.org, April 15, 2021)
- [ink version 1.0 release! - inkle blog](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/0d9819b09c83/) (inklestudios.com, April 15, 2021)

## Elsewhere

- Wayback Machine: https://web.archive.org/web/*/https://seths.blog/2021/04/identity-is-used-against-us/