Tuesday, October 10, 2006
Opposites
I have a little mind-taker rule-of-thumb I use when I size people up. When a person is bold enough to declare a personal quality, 70 per cent of the time that person is really the exact opposite of that quality.
I wish I had a dollar for every time I've been told "I'm pretty smart, you know" by people who have turned out to be utterly brainless.
Or how about "I'm kinda crazy", typically spoken by people who are as plain as toast.
Or "I love people", often declared by the snobby, cliquey and judgmental.
I could go on, but each quote reminds me of someone and they're always unpleasant memories.
As frustrating as this is, I have come to view this sort of thing as a fundamental and essential nature of humanity. We humans have a tremendous and endearing capacity for self-deception, for being able to believe something even in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
It's a strength and a weakness, I figure.
Tales of self-deception are, if nothing else, good for a laugh. Not a mean-spirited laugh, but a good-natured "aren't we all silly" laugh.
So let's hear your anecdotes. Do you have a boss who's a self-declared "detail person" with an impossibly messy desk? Do you have an unmarried sister-in-law who "loves kids" but clearly can't stand being around them? What's your favourite story of human contradiction?
posted by Mentok @ 11:40 a.m.,
5 Comments:
-
At 12:23 p.m.,
Bathroom Hippo said...
-
Bastard!
I mean...
Everyone thought my Aunt was a clean freak...her house is infested with hundreds of hobo-spiders. -
At 9:49 p.m.,
Suzan Abrams, email: suzanabrams@live.co.uk said...
-
Hi Mentok,
I think where it was once possible to easily stereotype society in the decades when tradition & conformity ruled, there is just too much of a liberal spirit these days.
And many personalities (my own) are multi-layered from opportunities and experiences that have long presented themselves.
I think it really takes a long time to know someone properly...and there must be a real interest in the person and perhaps, too, the person must want to open up...otherwise, it's difficult.
One can only guess.
regards -
At 10:14 p.m.,
Bathroom Hippo said...
-
Dude man...
I'm not like...you know...the kind of person who would complain or anything....but....
Did I just say "dude man?" Anyway...oh I forgot what I was going to say...
Bastard! -
At 10:26 p.m.,
Mentok said...
-
Hippo - I don't know what you are complaining about. Even though the order of the list means nothing, you are still much higher on it than you were before
Susan - yes, of course it takes longer to get to know people. This is just a rule of thumb...not even that. This is just a goofball blog and I'm just kibbitzing, ya know.
...except about the "I'm pretty smart, you know" thing. I've heard that way too many times from way too many people who should never have said it. Now it's like nails on a blackboard for me ;-) -
At 5:24 a.m.,
said...
-
my own personal rule of thumb is to never trust my first impression of anyone. that pretty much covers all the bases. although i suppose that says more about me than the other person, and doesn't have all that much to do with what you're talking about, does it? : )
