Sunday, June 27, 2010

Status Anxiety; Update; Pause


"If we were completely ignored by everyone we come across, it would be worse than being tortured"
- William James

"The reward we really want [in life] is attention"
- Alain de Botton

The next blog post will be a very significant one. It will relate strongly to one of the key themes of this blog. I plan to use it as a prelude to The Real Game of Love (currently under construction). It's all about attention and how everyone craves it whether they realize it or not. Summary below:
  • Jocks and nerds, prom queens and ugly betty's exist for a reason. Why do we value attention from some people more than others? and why do some people get ignored? Im not talking about romantic attention (though it is related somewhat).
  • In the multicultural mixing pot of the Halls of Residence, I have had some rather intriguing experiences lately. I now have good reason to believe that racism in a social context is really much rarer than many people believe. Racism seems to be more of a convenient excuse for inattention.
  • How positive attention begets positive attention - being open and friendly to everyone and reaping it's rewards.
  • How "clicking" with others is really made easier by similarities in culture/upbringing/mentality and why similarities in interests (hobbies etc) may not necessarily mean that you will "click" with someone.

I was insipired by the documentary called Status Anxiety narrated by the Swiss author Alain de Botton who wrote the book of the same title. He posed many thought provoking ideas in his book. I recommend everyone to watch it. (this abc iview link expires on the 6th of July)

The blog template has been successfully updated. However, my plans for this blog have yet to be fully implemented. Content pages on the right menubar have simply not yet been made (those with muted grey text). I want this blog to serve as a platform where I can congeal my thoughts on some things I am passionate about; from coffee to to economics. The recent site update was a step in that direction.

This blog is going to be relatively inactive for awhile. I've been caught up in DotA. My god it's addictive. The halls have this great IP phone conferencing system and playing with my friends in the halls against other people online (via garena) has been great fun.

No comments:

Post a Comment