I think one of the reasons I am an even worse contrarian now than I was when I was a kid is that I’ve lived nearly my whole life doing what people tell me I definitely should not do and succeeding in spades.

It’s hard, after all that, to not just reflexively do the opposite of what’s common “knowledge.” Of course, it’s better by far to examine and attempt to ratiocinate about each proffered option. Reflexive contrariness, though, has served me so well it’s often hard to avoid just defaulting to that method.

So if you want to know why I am the way I am, that’s a large part of it.