Kaj_Sotala comments on Strategic choice of identity - Less Wrong

76 Post author: Vika 08 March 2014 04:27PM

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Comment author: trist 01 March 2014 06:47:40AM 9 points [-]

The adventurer probably does the most for me, finding new paths and places and people brings such delight. My conscious identification as a person sidestepped a bout of gender-confusion when I realised I hadn't ever identified as man or woman, merely with pieces of each.

I'm less sure about, say, my combination of someone who "gets it done" and "doesn't show imperfect work". The majority of interesting work that gets done is done coincidentally, because it needs doing, and isn't up to my standards. I've been experimenting with ways to overcome this, but with social commitments to share interesting work, not with identity changes.

I have been for a very long time a cryptic, who doesn't bare theirself to strangers, much less the public, and likes to play with words more than express clearly, I'm slowly replacing that with "an open person". I conciously push to show a more vulnerable bit of myself before I normally would these days, so far just with people that I imagine eventually sharing with anyway. I got burned pretty badly my second time trying that, but the the first time had me already completely convinced. Plus, I never could have written this if I hadn't.

Comment author: Vika 03 March 2014 03:30:13AM 1 point [-]

The adventurer identity has been a key subset of the "try things" identity for me. Not every new attempt can be classified as an adventure, though, so an "explorer" identity might be more generally applicable. It increases the playfulness and creativity aspects of trying things.

Openness is a very useful identity, I'm glad you are developing it!

Comment author: malcolmocean 01 March 2014 02:57:33PM 1 point [-]

Social reinforcement for learning to be more open/vulnerable! :)

I think the imperfect work thing is a huge barrier for many people, and I would guess that both identity shifts and commitments would help here, and their effects would sum/multiply.