Challenging the status quo
I'm tempted to launch into another rambling piece of disjoint ideas and vague conclusions, but for now I'll leave the words up to Paul Graham - he has quite a command of them it seems.
The linked essay in particular I found a most valuable read. Others of his which I read first I was more impartial towards. While I certainly don't agree with everything Paul says (indeed, on reflection, it is curious to imagine that Paul would be disappointed if I did!) and one day I'd like to articulate my disagreements, but for now, reading and absorbing the essay itself is enough work. For me, it is very comforting to read thoughts born from the kind of thinking which I see as sorely lacking in my general conversations with colleagues. If one is not turned off by the seemingly deliberate extreme extrapolation of the base ideas, and instead sees that an extremist can be a valuable source of new ideas precisely because of the inherent passion in those ideas, then a lot can be gained from reading the work of the less orthodox thinkers.