When People Travel Outside Their Boxes
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Currently, Guy Kawasaki (oh, I can see the Google ranking now!) started a celebrity-gossipy type site called Truemors. I really have nothing to say about the site, but I am fascinated by the strong criticism that has been tossed in Guy’s direction all over the blogosphere. No matter how you might feel about Mac’s there is no denying that Guy has been very successful in many business ventures. This one probably has a better than average chance of succeeding given his past accomplishments.
However, as Pamela Slim pointed out, “we hate it when people we respect do unexpected things.” In reflecting on this, I realized that I definitely have this problem. For example, if I know someone from a professional setting, I am always confused and sometimes offended when I encounter them in a different context and they act differently.
Why is this? Why do we take personal offense when people disrupt our archetypes of them? In the Guy Kawasaki example, it seems to have to do with the fact the people respect Guy for being innovative and business savvy. The Truemors experiment makes him look like a rumor-mongering gossip. The interesting point is that he could be both. He could be a start-up expert and a National Inquirer reader.
Human beings have an amazing capacity for duality and self-contradiction. Because our minds seek to categorize and stabilize our views of the world, we have a hard time accepting that. We want people to be all good or all bad. Subtlety is hard, duality is hard, accepting people for everything they are is hard.
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Join the Chorus... to “When People Travel Outside Their Boxes”
Posted: Jun 25th, 2007 at 9:54 am
Very true, Maria. This is a very interesting nod to human nature. As hard as it is to accept people for the multiple facets of life they represent, it is sometimes just as hard to expose the various sides of yourself to those you wouldn’t normally get to see it. I think the social networking sites are really forcing people to decide how much they want people to know about them. I know I’ve had to really struggle with how much of my opinions, likes, dislikes, fun photos, etc to really put out there. There is a fine line that exists. Some balance it lightly and carefully, some stomp on it with steel toed boots.
Posted: Jun 26th, 2007 at 1:34 pm
You bring up and interesting point, Nicole. People act differently in different situations. For example, if I was talking to my mom about how my day went, the story would be quite different than if I was talking to one of close friends. Adding the online world makes this even more complex. Being able to stay anonymous really frees us to explore different sides of ourselves, but can also be overwhelming. How many different faces can one person have?
Very true, Maria. This is a very interesting nod to human nature. As hard as it is to accept people for the multiple facets of life they represent, it is sometimes just as hard to expose the various sides of yourself to those you wouldn’t normally get to see it. I think the social networking sites are really forcing people to decide how much they want people to know about them. I know I’ve had to really struggle with how much of my opinions, likes, dislikes, fun photos, etc to really put out there. There is a fine line that exists. Some balance it lightly and carefully, some stomp on it with steel toed boots.
You bring up and interesting point, Nicole. People act differently in different situations. For example, if I was talking to my mom about how my day went, the story would be quite different than if I was talking to one of close friends. Adding the online world makes this even more complex. Being able to stay anonymous really frees us to explore different sides of ourselves, but can also be overwhelming. How many different faces can one person have?