Deviance

One-line definition: The willingness to push back against the norms society has put in place — “a willingness to disregard likability.”

How sources describe it

• Visakan Veerasamy (the 2023 talk): so much of human creativity has been spent suppressing human creativity, which is why we lack 1,000X the greatness we could have. Deviance is the reclaiming of that suppressed creativity.
• “Once you have succeeded at some kind of deviant shit your ontology is permanently corrupted.” Archetype: Elon Musk’s 2007 trip to Russia to buy missiles despite everyone telling him it was a stupid idea.
• Kyle’s refinement: deviance for its own sake is hollow; the purest, world-changing form is deviance in pursuit of conviction — i.e., Conviction-Led Contrarianism.

Where it shows up

• Conviction-Led Contrarianism — the goal state of the whole essay; “Seek deviance” is the final playbook item.
• Conviction-Led Contrarianism - Research — research notes.

Related concepts

• Contrarianism — deviance is contrarianism acted upon.
• Conviction — the fuel that makes deviance worthwhile rather than reflexive.
• Likability — deviance requires being willing to disregard it.
• Conviction-Led Contrarianism — deviance in pursuit of conviction is the world-changing form Kyle identifies.
• Visakan Veerasamy — source of the framing that deviance reclaims suppressed human creativity.
• Elon Musk — cited archetype; the 2007 Russia missile trip as deviance that permanently corrupts one’s ontology.