Bill Ackman's Ode to the Unique Insights of Outliers
Billionaire hedge fund manager's Tweet touches on central theme of Courageous Discourse Substack.
By JOHN LEAKE
Billionaire hedge fund manager, Bill Ackman, just posted the following Tweet:
See full TWEET.
I was happy to see these reflections from such an influential man, as they are a central theme of the Courageous Discourse Substack and our book, The Courage the Face COVID 19: Preventing Hospitalization and Death While Battling the Bio-Pharmaceutical Complex.
Science and medicine have almost invariably advanced through insights of individuals who were, in their day, uniquely perceptive and observant. Many gifted observers in history were NOT rewarded for their insights, but heavily persecuted for articulating them.
Mr. Ackman posted his reflections as part of his exhortation to Dr. Peter Hotez to accept RFK, Jr.’s invitation to debate. They are the principle theme of my recent conversation with Dr. Andrew Wakefield.
After three years of stifling conformity, I’m happy to see men of wealth and power like Ackman acknowledging the value of heterodox views offered by gifted individuals.
"After three years of stifling conformity, I’m happy to see men of wealth and power like Ackman acknowledging the value of heterodox views offered by gifted individuals."
Yet far more people of little wealth and power saw through the scams and spoke out after only three weeks or months.
The ability to more swiftly consider competing ideas is also why free speech is so crucial, and should be promoted as a cultural value in every family and organization. I left the world of social media several years ago because the other piece to functioning debate, calm civility, seemed to have bypassed the “look at me” social media trends. Problems are rarely solved screaming names at another person. Not sure why anyone would think typed conversations would be any different.
Finally, I think intellectual curiosity is increasingly squashed in our society, and that is a huge red flag for a regressive path. For those of us who saw the insanity of Covid very early, at least personally speaking, it had nothing to do with wanting to be “right,” and everything to do with a curiosity to actually want to understand the situation - whatever was objectively right. I looked at dashboards, looked up what size particles masks could actually physically filter, used the models plotted against observed actual outcomes to teach my then 6 and 8 year olds about graphs (they inadvertently learned a great deal about propaganda too). To be curious is a virtue in short supply and I hope we all start encouraging it more consciously.