> The whole "opt out of expected group-think behavior" [...]

I would have opted out. But I never figured out how to be "in"!

I suspect a lot of people forging their own paths didn't really choose too, although they might assume they did.

When you see things differently, you don't just have different visions of where to go, but an aversion to those well worn paths that often seemed inexplicably depressingly difficult.