#1: In-group Cheems

In-group Cheems is particularly pernicious because of the strength of peer effects.  If you are surrounded by like-minded, ambitious, will-to-act-havers, you are unlikely to find yourself much affected by In-group Cheems.

As with other forms of Cheems, there is obviously an important distinction here between ‘friends giving you helpful advice about obstacles you’ll need to overcome, or trade-offs to be aware of’, and ‘reflexive cynicism’. 

What is Cheems is laughing off someone’s sincere ideas as self-evidently stupid, or declaring with very little knowledge about a particular field or ambition that something is too difficult/too risky to even think about further. And whenever it puts someone off pursuing what they otherwise might (consciously or not), its consequence is the creation... See more

A topic I am keen to write about  is Thomas Kuhn’s The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, and what it might teach us about scientific groupthink and pandemic management, 2020—. So I will save most of this for then, but there is an interesting relationship between groupthink and In-group Cheems. 

In-group Cheems is the reflexive cynicism of advice-givers (whether that advice is solicited or otherwise) about someone’s dreams or ambitions.