- Blogtober Came Early | Day 1/30
- My Dream Life is Complicated | Day 2/30
- Making the Case for Free Work? | Day 3/30
- Deciding to Be Better at Something | Day 4/30
- The Business of Podcast Networks in Africa | Day 5/30
- Why I Started Blogging | Day 6/30
- What’s on My Phone? | Day 7/30
- The Cautionary Tale of Modern Technology | Day 8/30
- My talk to Teens on Blogging would go something like this | Day 9/30
- On the Spectrum of Transparency and Accountability | Day 10/30
- Letter from ‘Home’ | Day 11/30
- The Africa You Never Read About | Day 12/30
- The Perks and Perils of Blogging in Africa | Day 13/30
- Reading Roundup: Interact with my 5 African Inspirations | Day 14/30
- Dear AU, are you doing enough to fulfill your mandate? | Day 15/30
- Effecting Reconciliation after Parental Estrangement | Day 16/30
- Why Kenya is your Leisure and Business Travel Destination | Day 17/30
- The Diverse, Unique and Peculiar Kenyan Culture | Day 18/30
- 10 African Traditions and Cultures that should be abolished | Day 19/30
- 5 Books You Should Read in 2019 | Day 20/30
- Reading Roundup: On the Contrary… | Day 21/30
- Spreading Mental Health Awareness to Households | Day 22/30
- 9 Lesser-Known Facts about Kenya | Day 23/30
- We Can Coexist Peacefully in Sexual and Racial Diversity | Day 24/30
- 7 Ways to Absorb and Retain Podcast Knowledge | Day 25/30
- A Family Story in Pictures | Day 26/30
- 11 Lessons from the Blog Challenge | Day 27/30
- To the Blogger who Inspired me without Knowing | Day 28/30
- To the Reader who came across my words | Day 29/30
- Mailed to Winter ABC Creators and Organizers | Day 30/30
We live in a filter bubble aided by algorithms that customize our online experiences to only access or encounter information and opinions that conform to and reinforce our own beliefs.
Enter the contrarian.
→The free thinker who is not averse to popular ideas and personalities by virtue of their popularity.
→The Devil’s advocate who lives to stir the pot.
→The Reverse Contrarian who assumes a conflicting position to an already existing backlash against a contrary opinion.
→Arbitrary Contrarian who disagrees just for the heck of it.
Being a contrarian came into fashion, lost its initial meaning which entailed reasoning independently and resisting pressure to conform, left and is back again as potent as ever. I am not saying the “Unpopular Opinion” trend that went on for over a month on Twitter had a bunch of contrarians pulling from each other’s energies with no judgment, but it could well be.
You can spot the patron saint of contrarians from afar. They revel in trolling with inflammatory views to go viral or something like that.
However, people do actually have an opposing view or opinion that is well informed or justified.
Whichever way you look at it, everybody has a right to an opinion, which is still subject to rejection or approval. It’s “part of life.”
So sit back, suspend judgment while reading the pieces and try to embrace an alternative perspective because today’s reading roundup is a curation of unpopular opinions.
On the Contrary…
1. Why I won’t take my Husband’s surname.
2. Boredom is useful. Let Children get bored again to spawn creativity and self-sufficiency.
3. Improving ourselves to exclusion or death – The Problem with Self-Improvement Culture.
4. When our purpose is external, we may never find it – On the Myth of Finding your Purpose.
5. ‘Nobody owes you anything’ is a farce that takes away from responsibility.
