The advantage of being me
Feb. 28th, 2011 02:00 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
terrikoFrom The Advantage Of Dual-Identities (A Case Study of Nabokov), I bring you this quote:
So as a female, half-asian all-canadian researcher, I'm clearly better at creativity than all those boring white dude researchers?
... I don't even know exactly where to begin on this. So I'm going talk about Bones for a minute. I've been watching it with my sister lately while we do other things (crochet, do mending, wander around looking for things in an mmo, eat dinner, etc.) and the other day she pointed out that she loves how the show deals with Angela, or really, how it doesn't. See, Angela Montenegro is the team's artist: she does sketches of the victims. But she doesn't stop there: she also coaxes data off broken camcorders and swallowed flash drives doing digital forensic work. She's an adept computer programmer who writes software that helps visualize and model what happened during a crime. What's cool about Bones is that it's totally taken for granted that she can be an artist and a coder. (And really, pretty much whatever else she wants to be.)
So I guess while I fundamentally agree that having multiple "identities" is a huge asset to my work and creative abilities, I sort of feel like... why are they making such a big deal about this, as if it's some hugely abnormal thing. Why can't they just accept that Angela can draw and code? Why do people insist on compartmentalizing people into single skill sets? I can drive a car and code and no one thinks that's weird, but plenty of people have commented with surprise that I can edit a magazine (yes, I used to do this) and write code. Hello, world?
The article just makes me a little uncomfortable. This worst part is the paragraph about how the US will be overrun by mixed-race folk like me with superior creative skills -- awkward racial superiority with a different spin -- but even the study methodology doesn't quite sit right with me at a first reading. But maybe the article is simply a journalistic reflection of research into of a real logical fallacy that people often employ: the assumption that one must specialize in only one skill to be the best person one can be. That's one of those things that might be true for programs, but I really haven't seen much evidence of it being true for people.
Despite my issues with the article, I think it's got a nice take-away message: it's a-ok, normal, and maybe even superior to have and use your multiple identities. And don't let incredulous folk tell you otherwise.
It’s also important to note that the advantage of having a “dual-identity” – being both a novelist and a scientist, for instance – isn’t limited to Nabokov. According to a study led by Jeffrey Sanchez-Burks, a psychologist at the University of Michigan, people who describe themselves as both Asian and American, or see themselves as a female engineer (and not just an engineer), consistently display higher levels of creativity.
So as a female, half-asian all-canadian researcher, I'm clearly better at creativity than all those boring white dude researchers?
... I don't even know exactly where to begin on this. So I'm going talk about Bones for a minute. I've been watching it with my sister lately while we do other things (crochet, do mending, wander around looking for things in an mmo, eat dinner, etc.) and the other day she pointed out that she loves how the show deals with Angela, or really, how it doesn't. See, Angela Montenegro is the team's artist: she does sketches of the victims. But she doesn't stop there: she also coaxes data off broken camcorders and swallowed flash drives doing digital forensic work. She's an adept computer programmer who writes software that helps visualize and model what happened during a crime. What's cool about Bones is that it's totally taken for granted that she can be an artist and a coder. (And really, pretty much whatever else she wants to be.)So I guess while I fundamentally agree that having multiple "identities" is a huge asset to my work and creative abilities, I sort of feel like... why are they making such a big deal about this, as if it's some hugely abnormal thing. Why can't they just accept that Angela can draw and code? Why do people insist on compartmentalizing people into single skill sets? I can drive a car and code and no one thinks that's weird, but plenty of people have commented with surprise that I can edit a magazine (yes, I used to do this) and write code. Hello, world?
The article just makes me a little uncomfortable. This worst part is the paragraph about how the US will be overrun by mixed-race folk like me with superior creative skills -- awkward racial superiority with a different spin -- but even the study methodology doesn't quite sit right with me at a first reading. But maybe the article is simply a journalistic reflection of research into of a real logical fallacy that people often employ: the assumption that one must specialize in only one skill to be the best person one can be. That's one of those things that might be true for programs, but I really haven't seen much evidence of it being true for people.
Despite my issues with the article, I think it's got a nice take-away message: it's a-ok, normal, and maybe even superior to have and use your multiple identities. And don't let incredulous folk tell you otherwise.
several skills
Date: March 1st, 2011 07:37 am (UTC)One is, to be world-leading in any one skill. If you're the worlds best guitar-player, or photographer, or pole-vaulter, you're golden. The problem with this is that there's a lot of people competing to be best in any skill, particularily any useful or popular skill.
The other way, is to be *good* (but not world-leader) in 2 or more *different* skills, ideally two that can somehow create useful combinations.
For himself, he says there's tons of people who are funnier than him. And tons of people who are better at drawing than him. But less people who are *both* funny *and* able to draw well.
I code well, but certainly not world-class, my wife is a financial analyst, and again is good, but not a world-leader in any sense. What is a person worth, I asked her, that can code as well as I can, and understands finance to the degree you do ? We debated it, it's hard to say, but certainly "a lot" fits.
I think both multiple personalities, and multiple skills, have a lot of benefits. And atleast for skills, it's easier to go from nothing to fairly-good in a new skill, than bring an existing very-good skill up to beyond awesome.
I don't think being female and being asian and canadian is really a case of multiple in this sense though - it seems to me, the word for that is just plain simply "normal".
Re: several skills
Date: March 1st, 2011 02:54 pm (UTC)Yeah. That's really what irked me most about this article. It feels somewhat like being all agog that one can breathe and walk at the same time.
Re: several skills
Date: March 1st, 2011 04:30 pm (UTC)*I am actually neither Indian nor Pakistani, insofar as I am not a citizen of either country and haven't spent more than a few weeks of my life in South Asia, total.
Re: several skills
Date: March 1st, 2011 05:02 pm (UTC)