Turns out, the House of Specialists is bursting at the seams with residents. In fact, we all have a room there. I'm just down the hall from you, and you. Especially special you.
This weekend, I just finished a book I had blogged about even before I read it: Stumbling on Happiness by Daniel Gilbert.
I can report it is entertaining and informative. It may even change the way I think (which may or may not make me happy, but that is only part of the story). At one point Gilbert writes:
Because if you are like most people, then like most people, you don't know you're like most people. Science has given us a lot of facts about the average person, and one of the most reliable of these facts is that the average person doesn't see herself as average. Most students see themselves as more intelligent than the average student, most business managers see themselves as more competent than the average business manager, and most football players see themselves as having better 'football sense' than their teammates. Ninety percent of motorists consider themselves to be safer-than-average drivers, and 94 percent of college professors consider themselves to be better-than-average teachers. [p.252]
He goes on.
I suppose he could just as easily have written, "Every blogger considers himself or herself especially special, with insights more worth sharing than anyone else and insights more worthy of comments than anyone else."
Or else, why do we all bother tapping the keyboard keys, hunh?
I'm not sure this stumbling onto specialness diluted by everyone else's special specialness makes me happy or not.
I think not.
Maybe it's a topic for me and my therapist on Wednesday.
Then again, I'm a little fearful my therapist may pull a Dr. Melfi on me, just as she did on Tony Soprano. My therapist might feel that I'm using therapy simply to validate my pathological special specialness that goes by the especially special name of solipsism.
12 comments:
PK,
Two things. One, you shouldn't have started with Norwegian Wood because the song stuck in my head all the way down the page, with your revised lyrics filtering through intermittently.
Two, of course you are special, certainly no one else sees things the way that you do, nor do they present them with the same character and personality that you do. That's not any different than anyone else. The difference is that your blog is truly interesting, which is why you have return readers. You are intelligent and interesting, a winning combination that precludes therapy.
Have a wonderful week.
Scarlett
I suffer the reverse disease - I truly believe I am entirely unexceptional, nothing special.
But I'm very good at hiding it.
Puss
About you, I agree with Scarlett. About myself, I believe I'm in the same boat Puss.
PS - I am so mediocre, in fact, it has taken me three times to correctly sign my username. Cripes.
so -- bottom line -- would you recommend the book to read or not?
i've still got it on my amazon/com wish list and will buy it when i get enough there for free shipping...
so do i take it off?
i guess your comment about me not being more special than the person in the next office -- well, scared the crap outta me
i AM SPECIAL!!!! smile
That was such a special post...!!!
Peace
WS,
Well, I'm subjective, as are you. "You say yes, I say no..." Now see if you can get that one out of your head. Hello. Goodbye.
GP,
You hide your unexceptionality unexceptionally poorly. But isn't the exception to the rule the fun of the rule?
MRG,
Must be the effects of MRG. Or was it MSG? Whatever.
AZG,
Yes, it's worth buying. Or get it from the library. Do people still go to libraries?
Odat,
Especially nice special specialized nonspecious species of a comment.
PK
Oh you are wicked sir!
But... if you can't let it be, then between the two of us, we can work it out and help eachother get back to here there and everywhere.
Have a good day, sunshine....
;o)-
Scarlett
I think I'll pass on the book. Just that little snippet gave me a special headache.
WS,
How naughtily nattily Victorian-sounding, all layered and such. Well, tomorrow never ends unless you're a day tripper, though I feel fine eight days a week except for yesterday. Help.
There's a parlor game in there somewhere, cry for no one. I Am the Walrus (Not).
Ron,
I don't deny it raises a dilemma. E.g., without a doubt you are better than average in running. Similarly, my daughter is among a special tier of ballet dancers in the world. But honestly I took the quote somewhat out of context. His point was that our subjective bias makes us feel so special we dn't essentially care to learn what others can empirically teach us about happiness, even knowing that subjectivity skews things. Something like that. Oh well. Be happy.
PK
We are all special. Being special is no longer special. Special is the contemporary average.
And then there are those of us who just don't care if we are special or not. We are just "us" and, I suppose, that makes us "special!"
PK,
I am delighted to know that about your daughter. I have a special connection to the professional dance world (in the ballet genre mostly), and a deep passion for it.
I hope she is able to dance the roles she loves, for the best companies, for many years to come.
Scarlett
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