Choices vs. abilities Oct 21, 2011
"It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities." ~ Albus Dumbledore, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets #psychology
Comprehending details Oct 13, 2011
I've written before about my inability to handle extraneous information without proper context; i.e. I like information up front, details later.  I think this might be slightly related to my supposed sensory disorder, where I can't function in the presence of loud noises.  It's kind of the same thing:  Trying to extract relevant information from a sea of irrelevant details.  Also on this list of weird things that are wrong with me is my poor reading comprehension, which was documented throughout my entire life by standardized testing and hatred of classes involving literature.  I believe this is the same issue:  Trying to extract important plot details from a sea of words.  Now if they can just invent a pill to fix this, I might have a shot at becoming a real boy. #psychology
Arbitrary respect Oct 7, 2011
In Italy I wasn't allowed to take pictures of certain landmarks and works of art, and this caused me some mental anguish.  It's not that I have a problem obeying arbitrary rules; I'm a functioning member of society after all.  It was more that I couldn't understand the reason those arbitrary laws were put in place, i.e. no one benefited from my feigned respect.  In the Sistine Chapel, there were no pictures allowed at all.  This makes sense because people are stupid and don't know how to take indoor pictures without using their flash, and since flash harms painted works of art, it's probably just easier to forbid all picture-taking.  That's fine.  But at a cemetery in Venice, I couldn't understand what was preventing me from snapping a few shots.  Surely the dead people don't care.  And I have enough common decency to not take paparazzi photos of mourners at a funeral.  The only thing preventing me from taking pictures was a silly little sign asking me to not take pictures.  There was no obvious reason.  There was no enforcement.  Nobody benefited.  And I think intent plays an important role in all this.  None of the pictures I took, whether legal or illegal, were done for the purpose of showing disrespect.  If somebody felt disrespected in the process, I kind of feel like that's not my problem. #psychology
Following orders Aug 17, 2011
Jon Ronson, in his book The Men Who Stare At Goats, mentioned a little about how the soldiers involved in the Abu Ghraib fiasco explained their behavior by saying they were just following orders.  Technically this is a true statement, which makes it seem like a legitimate excuse.  But Ronson points to a movie about the life of Martin Luther and his struggle against the hypocrisy of the Catholic church:  "The moral of Martin Luther is that the individual cannot hide behind the institution."  This reminded me of a haunting scene from an X-Men movie where Magneto dismisses Charles Xavier's explanation for humanity's violence toward mutants as "they're just following orders" with a flashback to his childhood in a Nazi concentration camp where the soldiers used the same excuse.  Ouch.  Personal responsibility trumps following orders. #psychology
Sympathy vs. empathy Jul 18, 2011
For future reference:  Sympathy is understanding another person's feelings; empathy is feeling another person's feelings. #psychology
Causal indifference May 31, 2011
Every time I read/hear about some behavior (coffee, alcohol, breathing) having some effect (dementia, instant death, long life), I react one of two ways: 
  1. If it's negative (e.g. sporadic limb loss, uncontrollable eyeball swelling, horrific death), I say, "Oh well; everybody dies from something."
  2. If it's positive (e.g. x-ray vision, superhuman strength, non-horrific death), I say, "Sweet; another reason to continue doing X."
In conclusion, even if threatened with death, I'd still drink coffee. #psychology
Ignored warnings Apr 11, 2011
There's a series of signs with flashing lights on the highway that say something like, "If lights are blinking, tune to 590 AM for emergency traffic information."  One of the signs near my house has lights that are always blinking, traffic emergency or not, which completely nullifies the purpose of emergency flashing lights.  If the lights are always blinking and it doesn't necessarily mean there's an emergency, that means the lights serve no purpose.  It's the same thing with a local fire house, whose flashing lights are meant to signal an exiting truck, but since no truck is exiting, merely serve as "crying wolf" and wasting electricity.  These things remind me of store security alarms that everyone ignores and warnings about chemicals that cause cancer, which are also largely ignored. #psychology
Emotion sponge Mar 30, 2011
I learned recently that my wife is often unintentionally, subconsciously affected by my negative emotions, even when they're not specifically directed at her.  So if I'm stressed out from work, or angry at someone who cut me off driving home, she's negatively affected, almost like she's absorbing my negativity.  In fact, it turns out it's a two way street; I'm also an emotion sponge. #psychology
New eyes Mar 16, 2011
"The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes." ~ Marcel Proust #psychology
Be a better person Jan 4, 2011
I heard someone say that their New Year's resolution is "to be a better person."  There are probably people who legitimately use that as one of their resolutions and might actually have some success with it, but to me -- and this will sound pretty mean coming from a fairly negative, crotchety, realistic misanthrope -- it's one of the stupidest things I've ever heard.  From a practical, objective standpoint, how would one measure the success or failure of this goal?  It's too vague to even quantify.  If you said, "My resolution is to let cars go ahead of me when merging," at least you could look back on your behavior and decide whether or not you succeeded.  Or maybe you could say, "I plan to be nice to the checkout people at the supermarket."  Then at least you'd have a legitimate, concrete model to which you could attempt adherence.  But "to be a better person"?  Seriously?  Why not say, "My resolution is to live." #psychology