If we teach our children one thing that isn't true it means they can’t learn about all the other possibilities connected to that truth they now don’t believe.

When we teach them to behave because we said so, we're teaching them there's a higher authority than them. If this goes unchecked for years and years it breeds conformism. Maybe that’s why we celebrate entrepreneurs so much. Because they buck the norm, challenge beliefs that are so deeply held for the rest of us, which makes them seem superhuman. Maybe they’re just people who see the unwritten rules that the rest of us subscribe to. All because our parents didn't teach us to think for ourselves, but to do what we're told.

Maybe that's why Elon Musk is so revered when he's just a guy who had a lot of money trying to make things better for people. To push the boundaries of humanity. like Cadbury, Brunel, Aneurin Bevan, Florence Nightingale, and Ellen MacArthur.

This thought was inspired by the incredible six-book series on rationality by Eliezer Yudkowsky.