Brian MarickJul 30, 2025

So here’s an idea. Some think that “registering doubt, hesitation, and irony even while developing an argument” adds to an author’s credibility. Others think it destroys it.

I believe the acceptability of self-doubt has changed over my lifetime. Which makes me think some scholar somewhere has written a book on how the social status of self-doubt has evolved over the centuries.

(Presenting self-doubt is a loser’s move in the modern age. Overconfidence is the norm.) https://mstdn.social/@marick/114937139717597942

Show threadGiles Edwards-Alexander

@marick Self-doubt was basically de Montaigne’s approach: what do I know carved into the ceiling beams of his study. So, at one point it was popular enough to give us the Enlightenment.

Alain de Botton’s “The Consolations of Philosophy” spends some time on de Montaigne’s relevance to modernity, and I think he touches on it again in “Status Anxiety.”

Jul 31, 2025 at 9:05amWeb
Show threadBrian MarickJul 31, 2025
@gga Thanks. The more things I read that refer to “modernity,” the less I think I understand it.
Show threadGiles Edwards-AlexanderAug 1, 2025
@marick Me too. I was trying to be too smart. I meant “now.”