personality – Batfort

Tag: personality (page 1 of 2)

Mental processing models mapped onto MBTI functions

So I think a lot about thinking, and how people function. For me, MBTI was the first thing that helped other people make sense to me (even when they don’t make sense to me) in that I can understand the framework for other perspectives and paths of action that I myself would not normally take.

As my understanding of MBTI has grown, the model has not broke down. Moving from a simplistic idea that people could be somewhere on a spectrum between Extraversion and Introversion, for example, is helpful in its way. Learning about the cognitive functions, and how the letters merely describe the mechanism of interaction between those functions—this is where MBTI as a model starts to be very helpful.

Now we’re going to take somewhat of a leap. In my understanding, if something is true, it will dovetail with other things that are true.

I want to see if Elliott Jaques’ strata of mental processing will map onto the cognitive functions. (Please bear in mind that this is just me exploring, and I’m not well versed in Jaques’ theories.)

Stratum I: Declarative
You might hear things stated “Well, it’s either this possibility, or this possibility, or this possibility. I don’t know, pick one. If that one doesn’t work, pick another.”

I would declare (lol) that this sounds like Sensing. “This exists. Let’s try it.” The faith is in the doing.

Stratum II: Cumulative
It might sound like this, “Faced with this problem, I can see this as part of the solution, and this as part, and this as part. If I put them all together, I can solve the problem.”

From process of elimination, I’m putting Feeling in this category. Feeling-heavy people often make decisions based on the face of things and how it looks, so while this one doesn’t immediately jump into a category, I don’t have an immediate reason to disqualify it.

Stratum III: Serial
“If this is the case, then this must be the result.”

Thinking. Most thinking processes get really bogged down looking for a direct cause-effect linear relationship, which doesn’t always exist because the world is very complex.

Stratum IV: Parallel
Not simply multi-tasking, but truly understanding the interdependence of each serial process with another.

Intuition. A robust, accurate intuitive framework will facilitate this kind of multi-layered processing.

No surprises here. I’ve either confirmation-biased myself into mashing up two different frameworks for understanding human cognition, or these two actually do reflect each other.

I’m rolling some implications around in my head, especially in light of Dave Super Powers’ maxim “everybody can do everything”—meaning every person uses each one of the cognitive functions. No one type has a monopoly.

There are some knee-jerk conclusions that you could draw here, like “Intuitive people make the best managers!” But I’m not sure that’s true. Don’t forget that the most successful people are often people who have identified and developed their weaknesses, so the best managers have likely developed their thinking/intuiting abilities over time.

The Reader: Font choice is super-important and fashion designers are trolls

2018-10-28 / childlike empress / 0 Comments

source

Hello friends,

I love the end of October; in my part of the world, it’s finally starting to feel like fall. This weekend I’ve been raking leaves and curled up in front of my fireplace. I’ve discovered a renewed interest in practical wisdom—that only comes from doing something—so as I do an activity I ask myself “what am I teaching myself with this?” Am I teaching myself to be passive and accept something that someone else is offering to me? Or am I pushing myself to do and to accomplish things for myself?

It’s a revealing question.

» Why Are We Still Teaching Reading the Wrong Way? Phonics, as it turns out, teaches kids how words are an physical manifestation of an abstract system. Teaching “whole language” is the equivalent of “do what I tell you and don’t ask questions,” rather than giving children the tools to think and discover for themselves.

while you’re likely to find some phonics lessons in a balanced-literacy classroom, you’re also likely to find a lot of other practices rooted in the idea that children learn to read by reading rather than by direct instruction in the relationship between sounds and letters. For example, teachers will give young children books that contain words with letter patterns the children haven’t yet been taught. You’ll see alphabetical “word walls” that rest on the idea that learning to read is a visual memory process rather than a process of understanding how letters represent sounds. You’ll hear teachers telling kids to guess at words they don’t know based on context and pictures rather than systematically teaching children how to decode.

» Someone is already looking at MBTI type and personal style, and I love it. The site is more more sales-oriented than a thorough examination, but it’s still something to go off rather than simply expanding through first principles.

» In grantland, the wrong font can mean certain death. This PI’s grant got rejected because of byzantine font rules in the VA’s grant review system. Given the sheer volume of grant submissions to go through, I can understand why something as arbitrary as formatting is used to disqualify applications—just to narrow down the field.

» This one has been making the rounds: Instagram Has a Massive Harassment Problem.

But Instagram’s current reporting pathway doesn’t allow users to explain exactly why something is offensive, leaving moderators to guess.

“There could be all sorts of things that the user understands that the moderator doesn’t,” Andy said. “So many of my co-workers are old, people who did not grow up thinking like anything like this would ever happen. They got hired because their résumé says, ‘I have a Facebook account,’ but you need a Ph.D. in 4chan slang sometimes, and stuff that’s specific to Instagram, in order to understand what someone means when they post something. We just have no context about the stuff that we get related to harassment, and it makes it a lot harder to interpret who is attacking.”

» I remain interested in Wim Hof breathing.

» Ironic fashion is nothing new (and never will be while premium fashion trolls like Marc Jacobs and Karl Lagerfeld are still around).

» Everything I knew about reading was wrong—a recap of Naval Ravikant’s approach to reading. I’ve heard a lot about this guy on Twitter, so I listened to the podcast that was the origin of this list. He had some interesting things to say, but he’s not the luminary I was expecting. I will continue to be mildly interested.

» The Builders of Ocean Grove had a Higher Calling

» The Man Who Pioneered Food Safety

» Coming to terms with six years in science: obsession, isolation, and moments of wonder. This is a frank essay about the realities of getting a PhD in science, from someone who made it through. If you are interested in pursuing a PhD at all, read this.

» I’m considering chinoiserie wallpaper for my bedroom.

» FBI Admits It Used Multiple Spies To Infiltrate Trump Campaign

11 ways to improve your life, according to the post-it notes on my fridge

2018-09-22 / childlike empress / 0 Comments

Are you the type of person who writes “notes to self” on random pieces of paper? I am.

My past is littered with random back-of-envelopes, receipts, scraps of paper, pages torn out of magazines, and all sorts of other miscellaneous objects. I’m working on corralling all my random ideas in a bullet journal. Post-it notes are a step up for me—at least they’ll stick to something permanent.

I’m packing today, and pulled a treasure-trove of post-its off my fridge, where they have been for months and which I have not looked at since I put them up. Let’s find out what my past-self’s idea for self improvement was.

Take a week in the mountains to test drive your ideal life

I say I want to live on property with trees and mountains and a creek. But is that what I really want? Better to test it with an Airbnb than to go all-in with a huge loan and a bunch of property that I don’t actually want.

Make your home 200% you—functional and interesting to look at

One thing that I’ve always regretted from every placed I’ve lived is that I left it unfinished. There were always plans for what I could do with the space that I never carried out. Now it is true that these days I have 200% more energy than I used to, so it is time to turn that extra energy toward making a cohesive living space. The defining idea is me and my goals–healing, investigation, creativity, hospitality.

EXHAUST YOURSELF EVERY DAY

I often don’t want to go to sleep at night (case in point, I’m writing this post at a time when I should be in bed). Some nights, I can’t wait to go to sleep—usually those are after days of hard work or hiking, when I’m physically exhausted. My intellectual brain thinks that it would be a good idea to tire myself out more, either through physical work or through creative work. Not sure how sustainable this is, but it’s worth a try.

Working out 3x per week has certainly helped with this.

Practice drawing—do you want to do art, or not?

Some of the boxes I’m packing are full of art supplies. Sewing, embroidery, drawing, painting, printmaking, calligraphy. I like doing art, in theory. But I don’t make it an everyday practice. At some point in the past few months I set an absolutely insane goal of doing a gallery show of my own work in 2019. If I’m going to meet that, I need to get to work.

And if visual art isn’t something I should be doing, I should bid goodbye to my supplies. Buying art supplies is like buying crack, though.

Try eating only chicken, pork, and fish for a week

Though my health has improved considerably since my switch to an all-animal products diet, my body composition is not where I’d like it. I’m not fat, but I’m fatter than I’d like to be. Building muscle has helped, but I’m still dialing in a good meat/fat/fast ratio for my goals. One strategy would be to eat leaner meats for a while. (However, I’m considering putting myself back into ketosis.)

FINISH STRONG.

I’m good at starting things, and less good at finishing them. I have to push myself if I’m going to cross the finish line with dignity.

Weekly Sunday ritual (singing hymns, nature)

When one can’t (or won’t) find a suitable church, one starts to come up with all sorts of excuses and rationalizations for what one could be doing on a Sunday to center oneself on the Lord.

I know that no church is perfect, but its looking like my bar for “good enough” is too high.

Start collecting actual photos of what you want—dream board

A few online guru types have recommended this. Start an actual inspiration board for the life you want. This is one of those ideas that’s so obvious that it hurts, and yet it’s so obvious that I don’t want to do it. Maybe I need to do this before spending a week in an Airbnb in the woods.

What else do you do because it feels like “you have to”

Oftentimes when I socialize with people I get disillusioned. I’m often socializing with people because “it’s good for me” or because “It’s just something that you do,” rather than because I genuinely want to. I try to avoid those types of social interactions.

This is a boundary I want to set up in other areas of my life.

Do ballet again even if you’re fat

Back in the day, I started lifting weights because I wanted to get in shape enough to do an adult ballet class. Lo and behold, I’ve never reached an “in-shape enough” stage to feel comfortable doing ballet again. I took a class a few years ago, but had to quit when I got pneumonia. It’s time to try again.

Spend only the necessary time at day job

I’m a very task-oriented person, who tends not to focus as much on the clock as I do on what there is to do. As such, I can sometimes get distracted at work and forget to leave on time. If I want to succeed at my out-of-work pursuits, I have to spend time on them. That means leaving work on time.

This is a good list. It’s very much influenced by self-improvement Twitter, but it’s my list. I like that. It makes me want to put these into action.

A first look at MBTI type frequency

2018-09-13 / childlike empress / 0 Comments

This is going to be a really rough, sketch of a post. But give me an idea with legs, and I’ma run with it.

Yesterday I shared a little of my personal journey with MBTI. Today I started thinking more about how the “shadow” (ie, the converse of our least-used cognitive function) is underdeveloped and somewhat of an Achilles Heel. What is that, more broadly, for people? What are–on a general level–our problems?

To start out, I found this chart of type distribution in the general population. I have no idea how accurate it is (although it seems accurate), but since MBTI is of dubious scientific validity anyway, I’m just going to roll with it for now.

Please note that I am not a statistician. I just like knowing things. I also view MBTI more as a reliable heuristic than anything else.

Anyway. Type frequency:

Type	Frequency in Population
ISFJ		13.8%
ESFJ		12.3%
ISTJ		11.6%
ISFP		8.8%
ESTJ		8.7%
ESFP		8.5%
ENFP		8.1%
ISTP		5.4%
INFP		4.4%
ESTP		4.3%
INTP		3.3%
ENTP		3.2%
ENFJ		2.5%
INTJ		2.1%
ENTJ		1.8%
INFJ		1.5%

Then I figured out the “shadow” cognitive function for each of the types, binned them with their pairs, and tallied the percentage. For instance, ENJF and ESJF both have Ti as their inferior cognitive function, which would make Te the shadow function.

Here is a really ugly pie chart of the results.

Ugh, this chart is bad. Please don’t hold it against me.

ISFJ and INTJ top out with a Ni shadow at a whopping 25.4% of the population. In fact, the entire “top half” of the chart (which is conveniently going from bottom-up HOLLA TERRIBLE INFORMATION STRUCTURING) is entirely Intuition and Thinking.

That is 65.8% of the population who are effectively incapable of self-reflection or critical thinking.

Now, that’s overstating it. It’s merely 25.4% of the population (“population,” no idea what the sample is) that is nearly incapable of the self-reflection that comes with Ni.

The next 28% is nearly incapable of arranging their thoughts in an objective manner.

If you pay attention to human beings, this is not news. On the whole, we are an irrational, reactionary species. But dangnabbit if this doesn’t help explain why.

I have a lot more sympathy toward people when I realize that they view introspection or thinking in the same way that I view feelings.

This definitely helps explain why things tend toward a small group of “elite” running things for everybody else.

Anyhow, this is a rough first pass, but I want to look a little bit more about how the relative frequency of type is distributed. It’ll help me get more of a handle on global trends (say hey to my Ne, everybody) and I did a small data project at work last week that has primed my appetite for data visualizations (hi, Ti).

How do I feel about that?

2018-09-12 / childlike empress / 0 Comments

Ask me how I feel about something.

The answer? I don’t know.

Seriously. 95% of the time I have no idea.

Lately I’ve been on an MBTI kick, and while it’s lovely for certain things (reverse engineering the personality type for my boss, for instance), it also makes one come face-to-face with certain truths.

These truths are often things that we try to forget. Weaknesses.

The opposite of strengths.

Anyway, as an INTP, my cognitive function stack goes like this:

Introverted Thinking (Ti)
Extraverted Intuition (Ne)
Introverted Sensing (Si)
Extraverted Feeling (Fe)

I rely HEAVILY on Ti and Ne (even though sometimes I hate it) and this blog is largely the result of those two functions interacting. My Si style preferences often don’t make it to “publish” and Fe rarely. Fe is by far my weakest.

While these are my preferred ways of interacting with the world, the converse also exists. AKA, the sides I don’t prefer to use.

Extraverted Thinking (Te)
Introverted Intuition (Ni)
Extraverted Sensing (Se)
Introverted Feeling (Fi)

It’s funny. My “original stack” are things that I take for granted. Always coming up with new ideas, and being able to sort through them to find the best ones. Knowing every single sensation in my body. Being able to connect with other human beings, even if I don’t feel it myself.

My “shadow stack,” on the other hand, is full of things that I’d like to be. Better at commanding my external environment and keeping my life and household on an efficient schedule (hallmarks of Te). Better at envisioning my future (Ni). More style-conscious, putting more effort into my own appearance and that of my living space (Se). And let’s not get our hopes up, but sometimes I’d like to know how I feel (Fi).

Poor Fi gets the short stick. As the shadow of the function at the very bottom of the hierarchy, it’s the underdeveloped stepchild of the bunch. And I’ve been feeling it lately. I can come up with all sorts of examples of how Fi is my achilles heel.

I couldn’t tell you if I liked watching Downton Abbey but I could feel my brain dispensing dopamine while I was watching it. Like literally feel the chemicals. (Si)
It once took me a solid month to identify that I was heartbroken. Even though I was crying myself to sleep every night and listening to breakup songs.
My dearest desire in college was to be a robot. Or a vulcan.

Fortunately or unfortunately, humans aren’t robots OR vulcans, and the majority of us use Fi and Fe quite a lot throughout the day. This is a fact that I understand, but do not relate to.

Sometimes–usually when I’m hormonal–I feel feelings quite strongly. Most of the time it’s a default straight line, usually a bit on the melancholy side. That’s just how things roll with me.

When someone asks me how I feel about something, I often don’t genuinely know.

It came to my attention the other week that people often expect you to comment on how something makes you feel. This is a particular issue with my boss, who is heavy on the Fe and is always looking for an emotional reaction. I don’t like lying, but I also don’t function quickly enough with the feeling function to make something up on the spot. Usually I fake it with Ne and move on.

But that’s the crux of it. My function stack has left me with a function that doesn’t, well, it doesn’t function very effectively. Other people’s function stacks are that way, too–just with different functions.

Getting frustrated with another person for not being able to think (T) or not seeing the connections between things (N) is like getting frustrated with myself for not understanding how I feel (F).

People I know–people who feel–tell me that I have feelings but I just don’t know what they are. Maybe that’s true. I’m not sure what would happen if I focused on my feelings for a while, to try to innervate them like a muscle.

In 6th grade I taught myself how to raise one eyebrow by staring at it in the mirror. Perhaps I can do something similar on my emotions. Then I would be less of a cripple and would probably have an easier time communicating with people on a gut level.

Anyway, I’ll make an effort on this and report back what I find out.

Sometimes I feel like Extraverted Intuition is a big bully

2018-08-22 / childlike empress / 0 Comments

Okay, folks. I recently discovered

PersonalityJunkie.com

and it is my newest favorite supplier of MBTI ammo. Of all the typology sites I’ve read, this is by far the most robust in terms of the Functionality of each of the preferences. And to me, the Functionality is the most helpful part.

That’s got me thinking even more than usual about personality type, both in myself and in the people around me. I finally concluded that my boss is an INFJ, not an INFP, as I had previously suspected. Now I know exactly why my boss has the particular personality quirks that he does.

But for me, the primary Introverted Thinker, I’ve been doing a lot of introspection. Gosh, isn’t that surprise.

(When people talk about repeating the same mistake over and over again, I think our personality function stack has something to do with it.)

Anyway, as an INTP, I deal primarily with the world through Introverted Thinking, but I interact with the outside world mostly through Extraverted Intuition.

I love my Ne, it’s true. I love making known the hidden connections between things, and exploring seemingly random ideas and possibilities. It’s a lot of fun.

But lately I’ve started to see how Ne takes over my life, and I’m getting frustrated with it.

Ti plans out a productive day, and my Ne says “Nah I’m not gonna do that”
Ti has thought of all the possibilities and contingencies and plans, and Ne’s like JUST DO IT (and then does it)
Ti wants to do things RIGHT while Ne wants to do all the things right now no waiting let’s go
Ne convinces Ti to stop doing too much work, because Ne can wing it and pull it off perfectly 98% of the time
Ne LOVES browsing the internet–especially Twitter–and Ti is also secretly convinced that without this habit it will have nothing to chew on
Ti spends the time articulating a really fine point, and Ne communicates it with all the subtlety of a bull in a china shop

(Yes I animate my personality function stack. I find it helpful because my internal mechanisms are Thinking and Sensing, which are dry and make it difficult to have fun. All my fun functions are extraverted.)

Maybe that’s why I like writing more, because it gives my Ti a fighting chance against the sheer force of will that comes with Ne. Although, that’s how I’ve kept this blog up, by Ne going LA LA LA I CAN’T HEAR YOU to Ti’s insistence that all posts be perfect.

Even this blog post has been subject to that effect. What I had in mind is not what has come out on the page.

The thing is, I feel like Ne does it wants while Ti protests, and Si and Fe stand around and watch. Which does not a productive and functional personality make.

The answer is probably to strengthen my other cognitive capacities, and work to create room for them to grow and to build confidence in their abilities. But how?

I also feel like it would behoove me to turn my Ne in on myself, for some Ni personal perception.

I don’t know how to do that, though. How do you influence a personality characteristic that is barely even described, let alone studied?

Questions first, answers later.

Because if my Ti has learned anything, it’s that if you can’t articulate the question, you’re going to get a garbage answer.

Even from Ne.

Personality Type in Interior Design

2018-07-31 / childlike empress / 0 Comments

Some people want their homes to look like decor magazines, or like furniture showrooms. These are the people who buy the $5000 Viking stove because it looks pretty, not because they cook a lot.

Other people want their homes to be more functional, like an artist’s studio. (That’s me.) This is Julia Child and here extremely functional, yet aesthetic, kitchen.

Still other people seem to have no interest or aptitude for the look and feel of their living space. I don’t know if this is time, energy, money, or just plain ol’ apathy, but there are a LOT of people who kit out their pre-fab homes with big-box furniture, no art, and call it a day.

I’m interested in what “good design” might look like for different personality types.

For instance, by the Big 5 measures I’m pretty high in openness and medium in conscientiousness. I do better with a bit of clutter–like leaves on a forest floor, or a busy wallpaper–than I do with minimalism.

I’m curious to see how this might play out amongst other personality metrics.

It will probably play out in aesthetics–how something looks–but also in the functionality of a space.

What does Intuitive style look like? How do Thinkers style their spaces, rather than Feelers?

Like most personalities, I don’t think this will be completely straightforward.

For instance, take introversion and extraversion.

Bookshelves designed by Kelly Wearstler

The knee-jerk reaction would be to peg “introverted” design as bookshelves. I can’t argue with that line of thought–I would bet that introverts are more likely to have legitimate libraries than extroverts, more of whom I would bet have libraries just for show.

Most introverts I know have at least one bookshelf in their space. Ain’t nothing wrong with that. Reading books is a pretty solitary activity, unless you’re reading aloud to someone.

Conversation Pit by Eero Saarinen

When I consider extraverted design, I think of design that is facilitated for a lot of people, or parties. Though a relic of the bygone era, the conversation pit comes to mind.

The conversation pit is designed for one purpose and one purpose only: to get people talking–the ultimate extraverted activity.

But is that necessarily true?

What if an introvert really likes to have intimate dinner parties that involve intense conversation, and therefore designs his house around those principles?

Why do we automatically assume that an extravert entertains at home? An extravert’s habitation could just as easily be a crash pad, since he is always away at some other dwelling or party.

Extraverted people like to read, introverted people like to talk.

There’s more at play than simply slapping a label onto a design element and then banishing it to a personality type forevermore.

I plan on exploring these ideas in more depth over the coming months, first on a high level, and them perhaps even delving deeply into specific personality combinations and aesthetic styles.

I wonder if it would be possible to predict aesthetics based on a personality analysis.

If you can predict things like how clean someone’s dwelling space might be, it makes sense that you could predict how much effort, at the very least, had gone into creating a cohesive aesthetic experience.

This will be fun to explore, and I’ll bring you along on the journey.

And yet, we still self-sabotage

2018-07-12 / childlike empress / 0 Comments

Yesterday, I wrote about the vision of me, the best of me. Or at least one version of that.

Today, I’m struggling against self-sabotage.

All in the cycle of life, I suppose.

I really like starting things. New projects, new ideas, new adventures–they give me life. There’s a reason that spring is my favorite season and that my favorite color is the color of a newly budded leaf backlit by the sun.

The contrary of that is that I’m not a big fan of finishing things. There’s so much finality in it, when you make something unchangeable. You transmute all the potential of a new idea into something permanent. Obviously you have to do this to get anything done, but the creative possibilities are, at that point, gone. And depending on your level of craft and experience, the final product may or may not resemble the original idea.

I’m pushing myself to finish a personal project during the month of July. In fact, I’m trying to crash the project and get it done as fast as possible now. The finish line is in sight.

And thus the resistance begins. The self-sabotage. The willingness to be distracted by anything else but this project. The sudden backtrack of “I know it’s going to suck but I’m doing it anyway” with “But it needs to be good! What if this isn’t the right thing to do! You took the wrong angle!”

The doubt, the scattered focus. It’s like two magnets pushing against each other.

The real work has begun. One of the reasons that I’m doing this project in the first place is to push myself to finish something, and to force myself to do something that is not, in fact, perfect.

The point is to finish.

Proof of concept.

The more I fritter away the ending, the more I will be frustrated at “how long” endings take–even though most of it is my own making.

So I have to be smarter than myself.

It’s a fun game.

What Tanacon can teach us about client relationships

2018-07-03 / childlike empress / 0 Comments

I used to watch reality tv to watch how personalities interacted under pressure. Yes, the storylines were fake, and the scenarios were heavily suggested, and the editing was pervasive, but the people and their personalities were real–if a bit exaggerated because of stress and booze and exhibitionism.

It was like watching people I know react under a big ol’ microscope, and I didn’t have to worry about getting splat on by any of the drama.

So it’s been interesting to watch a subgenre of Youtube turn into, essentially, reality tv. Old school style, where you just followed people around with a camera.

Normally I don’t pay much attention to this area of Youtube. I went down the vlog rabbit hole a few years ago until I realized that the payoff in terms if real life application was pretty slim.

Teen Youtube, though, seems to be a big thing. Logan and Jake Paul. Pewdiepie’s army of nine-year-olds. I guess there’s a whole demographic on Youtube who don’t also use it to learn how to troubleshoot the pilot light on their water heaters.

However, Shane Dawson’s latest stuff has really caught my attention. Somewhere along the line, he went from an unknown-to-me comedian loved by the youths to Youtube’s Investigative Psychologist Dad. Seriously, even though he’s personally connected with the two subjects of the pieces I’ve watched, I feel more objectivity from him than from most mainstream journalists these days.

(Major kudos to Shane for being one of those comedy guys who so clearly thinks and feels deeply about the world–I’m not a huge comedy fan but I really respect comedians who are in it for real.)

It started with Bunny, aka Grav3yardgirl, a Texas goth girl with a big personality who somehow amassed a large following of tween girls. At some point, she started playing to the crowd instead making videos for herself, and the lack of joy showed. She closed herself off (IRL MISS HAVISHAM VIBES) and in doing so lost the fans on Youtube who are absolutely ravenous for authentic weirdness. I mean, I myself am Bunny’s age, and I subscribed to her because I secretly want a goth best friend.

Shane came into the picture by showing up at her house, delving into what makes her scared about Youtube (other than hemorrhaging subscribers), and helped her remember what she liked about making Youtube videos in the first place. Since then, Bunny and her videos both have been clearly on an upswing. Good job, Shane.

That put Shane Dawson on my radar (and on my “recommended” feed).

Which brings us to Tanacon.

Now, I don’t care about the convention itself. Essentially, what happened was two unseasoned kids teamed up to throw a convention up against Vidcon, decided to milk it, and oversold tickets like crazy because apparently people like “being oppressed outside” standing in the rain (or in this case, getting hella sunburned) waiting to get into a convention that’s at capacity.

Shane, doing the Youtube Dad thing that he does now, tried to console all parties involved (who are convinced that they’ll be ruined forever) and also to get to the bottom of all the lies and blame. He had a fine line to walk, since apparently he is good friends with Tana, but ultimately let the footage speak for itself. Bless Youtube vloggers and their need to film everything.

Without getting too much into the he-said-she-said of it all (and trust me, there is a lot), what strikes me is the lessons that we can learn from young, bold personalities getting in an argument over a badly managed conference: the client/provider relationship takes as much work as the event itself.

It’s interesting to watch the two of them interact, because they both clearly felt wronged, and they both clearly do not have the experience to know what they could have done better.

Don’t be a bad client

Tana, it seems, didn’t know what she wanted other than a lot of “nots.” Basically an event that was not Vidcon that was also somehow cooler than Vidcon. It is very difficult to develop an event (or a marketing campaign or any other thing) for a client who doesn’t know what they want. If you’re a client, try to figure out what it is that you’re looking for before you start planning.

Also: if your name is on the thing, you might want to take a little bit more care with it than going on vacation to Hawaii the week before your event is scheduled. Be around to answer questions during the prep phases. Usually by the time you’re asking questions day-of (or when things are about to launch), it’s way way way too late. Think about your reputation and what you want your name to stand for each step of the way as you’re selecting vendors, venues, and signing contracts.

Know your limitations. Know your budget. Know your physical constraints. Know your market. Start small and scale. (ie, start with a meet and greet, not by planning a convention). The person you hire for events is an expert in events, not in your particular area of expertise or what you personally want to get out of this event. You have to bring knowledge and research to the table, as well. You can’t rely on them.

Learn how to say no

Then we have Michael, the kid who was in charge of the convention, and apparently his own talent management company. He is a “yes” man, clearly wanting to always project the best possible facade for himself, his company, and his event. It is difficult to tell the exact sequence of events because of all the disparate footage, but he seems unable to put up boundaries between what is ideal, what could potentially be done on an indefinite time frame, and what is realistic within the constraints.

Being able to push back on a client when they are being unreasonable is one of the most important parts of dealing with a client (or a boss or anyone, really). Managing expectations to a realistic level is just as much about protecting yourself as it is creating the smallest possible gap between expectations and reality. When there is a big gap, there is big disappointment.

Another difficult thing you have to do when managing an event for someone else is behing honest about what’s going on. It can be really hard not to put a good face on things, especially when you want them to go well and your own ego is riding on them. But false information makes it impossible to make good contingency plans, which will absolutely tank your plans.

You always need a contingency plan. Always always always. It will make your life 90% less stressful, trust me on this.

And for everybody

Making decisions based on what’s good for your ego is usually a terrible idea. Sure, it might make you feel good in the moment, and it might make you look good on Youtube for a hot minute (at least until Shane Dawson goes digging), but ego-deep decisions rarely hold up in real life. Take your time, think things through, and be brutally realistic with yourself about what you can accomplish with your available resources. Then once you get your first success, leverage that momentum into something bigger.

Based on Michael’s past trajectory, and the fact that he got started with this stuff in high school, I have no doubt that he’ll figure out how to bounce back.

I hope that Tana will use this as a lesson in what she can realistically expect out of herself, and that she should play to her strengths.

And I hope that all the kids watching on Youtube, and the ones who were stuck in the parking lot, see this as a lesson on risk. There are things that are great to get from young people–like fresh perspectives and boundless energy–but there’s a reason why you have to be 35 before you can run to become president of the United States. There is a lot of learning that you have to do before you can be great at anything.

And kids, always read contracts before you sign them. If you die in the contract, you die in real life.

Interior design and personality

2018-05-07 / childlike empress / 0 Comments

I’ve long wondered how personality influences clothing and decor choices.

Wait.

When you put it like that, OF COURSE one’s personality influences one’s choices of clothing and home decor.

Someone who wears a fedora is absolutely not the same type of person as a person wearing a backwards baseball cap. There is a vast difference between the type of person who pastes a collage on her bathroom wall and the type of person who can’t sleep knowing that there is a crumb on her kitchen floor.

One of my defunct blogs was formed entirely on that premise–that if you wear clothes, you have a style. It may not be a considered style, or a polished style, but it’s a style nonetheless.

They say that intelligent people (or creative people, depends on the story) always have a messy office, although this sounds to me like flattery to make people with messy offices feel smart or creative.

But I do wonder if playful, maximalist designers like Kelly Wearstler or Christian Lacroix are more Intuitive.

Or if a more simple look that’s cozy, like an Emily Henderson design, is indicative of a Sensing type.

Or if someone like Dior–very structured and considered–was a Thinking type.

It’s hard to imagine any of these designers producing work in each other’s style. The lines are different, the priorities are different. The overall effect is different.

Now, I’m sure a competent designer could emulate another style (and many interior designers do, because they often design for the client rather than just their own whims) but a unique, ahem, point of view is one of the necessary criteria for a good designer.

I’m just guessing here, but I doubt that someone like Alexander McQueen (romantic and all about that grand narrative) is anything someone like Karl Lagerfeld (quite precise), even though both share a tendency toward subversion.

I might explore more of this. Design is something I enjoy (both structurally and aesthetically) and I haven’t talked about it on this blog as much as I would have thought.

Design + personality sounds like it would be fun to write about, even if not 100% useful.

But that’s okay. We all need a little more fun in our lives.

More perhapses

Perhaps a Perceiver is less organized than a Judger, unless of course the Perceiver overcorrects.
Perhaps an Introvert is more likely to include a reading nook than the large dining table for the Extravert.
Perhaps an Intuitive is more likely to find things that “go” but don’t “match” while a Sensing person would take the time to find the exact right match.

Batfort

Style reveals substance