Thinking for yourself is expensive. You are always being
disincentiviced for reasons that can be boiled down to something
like "it hasn't been done, so it has to be a stupid idea".
When I was younger, I was told I should study, since I was smart.
I thought that was silly, and that there would always be use for
smart people, even if they didn't go all the way they
theoretically could. I thought it was more important that the
topic of study reflected my idiosynchracies. I was right and
wrong.
People who are very educated would have use for smart people with
less education or different education if the well-educated
weren't too scared of being challenged by the interchange.
I don't know if there has been any institution I have worked in
that has felt like it wants honest feedback, and especially to
work with that feedback. The best matches for me have been the
most structured and the least structured entities, since in both
cases there is some fundamental honesty about the affair.
In case of the most structured, I have been in institutions with
completely authocratic top-down control. This is fine short term
since I have no illusions about giving any feedback that would be
heard.
The most egalitarian institutions are the sort that the only
structures that arise are interpersonal and not stated at any
point. In this sort of a group, feedback can be voiced but it
will not be actively acted on, since there is no person who can
take any responsibility.
The free thinkers gravitate towards the latter group, but not
because it gives any advantages. It's just the bottom of the
sink. In fact, it is probably better to just keep to yourself
than to go to a group that will just dissipate any innate
direction you might have.
I suppose there must be some crazy person who will be able to
mask themselves as an obeyant service worker and climb up one of
the authoritarian structures, then reveal their true nature, but
I can't think of anyone.
There are the entrepreneurs who start (practically alone) with
a crazy plan that just happens to work. Then they bubble into
these giants, and then we have to live with the consequences.
It is the most obvious successful way for sure.
And then there are the little ways, like becoming a writer or
podcaster or something.
