Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Original thinker

I was reading a New Yorker article (here is the abstract) about the Dutch artist/sculptor/engineer responsible for Strandbeests ("beach animals"), Theo Jansen.  He had an interesting quote that made me think about what a benefit it is to the individual and society to be able to think in an original way:

Mine is not a straight path like an engineer's, it's not A to B.  I make a very curly road just by the restrictions of goals and materials.  A real engineer would probably solve the problem differently, maybe make an aluminum robot with motor and electric sensors and all that.  But the solutions of engineers are often much alike.  Everything we think can in principle be thought by someone else.  The real ideas, as evolution shows, come about by chance.  Reality is very creative.  Maybe that is why the Strandbeests appear to be alive, and charm us.  The Strandbeests themselves have let me make them.

I don't know why I thought this was relevant.  I guess because sociopaths minds are so different than most people.  I think their minds, thoughts, and behavior can seem charming because of their uniqueness.  Sociopaths can have the innocence of an ingenue or the ruthless of the most determined predator.  There's something sort of refreshing about their brutal approach to the world.  And when we live in a world where "everything we think can in principle be thought by someone else," it might be nice to be around someone who is an entirely different "someone else" than you are.


33 comments:

  1. Is the way a sociopath or a psychopath thinks due to the attention thing? Getting caught in a tight focus on something small, exploiting that single thought, and then onto another? Before you know it you have a whole subject fleshed out in many different directions and several points of view going on at once?

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    1. Empaths do singular focus as well. Get your facts straight anon 02:54. Sociopaths are known to waver faster than others and not be able to stay focused too long.

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    2. If they cannot stay focused, how do they manage to have a business thrive? I guess I'm talking about the psychopaths.

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    3. I'm a moderate sociopath, and have a fairly well paying job. I work in advertising, and the ability to predict human emotion is vital. Since I have never felt it, I've studied emotion as an outsider, and understand people, often better than they understand themselves, even though I can't empathize. Some people (not knowing about my real nature) have asked why I didn't become a shrink. Just as Beethoven's deafness made him a great composer because he had to study what music was as an outsider, a lifetime of studying people trying to fit in has allowed me to see human emotion as a fairly predictable, almost darkly comical, but relatively simple phenomenon. Sociopaths think differently because they see society from the view of an outsider. This can be a very desirable trait in some professions.

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    4. Fascinating! i experience human emotion but of a very sort. I also find that helpful as i work with people. I can pretend a politeness with customers whom i feel nothing for unless its irritation. I have managed the facade of a sweet caring woman and no one has seen through to the truth. That i truly dont care about people at all. Especially children, who for some reason i cannot even stand the prescence of.

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  2. Anyone else think that a sociopath's creativity might be of a different sort? The kind that experiments with the human psyche rather than physical objects or the abstract?

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    1. Experimenting with their own psyche, yes I think that is creative trait. Seeing the reactions others, ad you see the results immediately. Manipulating your brain to make a lie seem convincing is creating illusion. If you are a body builder maybe you examine every inch of your musculature shaping your body to a desired aesthetic but you aren't sure what you like. You fuck around building and shrinking areas. You can do amazing things. If you can do the same with your mind think of the possibilities. I am a bpd bipolar and I do it because I'm fucking bored with my existence. If I do it as a creative outlet, socios must do it. If that's their thing. I'd imagine some don't have a creative bone in their body, but I don't think those are the ones who come here. SW is a pretty creative space.

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  3. Sociopath with an 'innocence of ingenue'? Does this mean the lowest form of sociopath who has no idea?

    Like the puppy who kills a little frog in play and works hard to understand why the frog is not letting him chase anymore?

    The puppy is not a sociopath, it's a puppy. An innocent sociopath does not exist, we'd call him a retard or a special person or whatever the correct term is used for very low IQ these days.

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    1. Your comment made me really laugh, Sceli! Thank you!!!

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    2. I think ME was trying to romanticize that they have the emotional age of a youngster, Sceli. If you compartmentalize stuff it is a valid. My childlike manner is refreshing to some of my friends. It is part of my charm and I have no reason not to embrace it.

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    3. The puppy does not understand what makes the frog alive, and is surprised when he kills it. Sociopaths do not understand human emotion, and are often surprised when they affect others so deeply. Not all sociopaths try to wreck others emotionally. Most are just trying to enjoy life, regardless of the emotional impact on others, because they don't understand that anyway. The puppy doesn't try to kill the frog, even though it's not very upset when it does.

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  4. I am one creative dude for having the "ASPD" stamp.

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  5. The sociopath is outside norms. As such, he is free from many constraints the empath accepts in order to fit in. I think the sociopath can show us a new a paradigm in which we can be free, too.

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    1. Evidently, you like the drama and the challenge but
      there are those that do not and that is the norm for
      us!

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    2. All I want to be is an independent thinker. I value that a lot. I think sociopaths have that, by and large, except for low functioning ones he he

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    3. ^Sociopaths live completely in their ego, a sociopath will never come into grips with reality just as I have a total regard for honesty, a sociopath places their regard in deceit.

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    4. Well, a sociopath will call it as he sees it. I have a sociopath g/f and I can tell her anything and she does not flinch lol

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    5. Only a fool would tell secrets to a sociopath. he, he

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    6. We are only as sick as the secrets we keep, Fool he he

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    7. @Monica.........And your an idiot!

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    8. L-A-M-E comeback. You don't seem like much of an original thinker Anon







      he he

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    9. @Monica....Your behavior is that of an immature
      child.

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  6. I have a buddy that is a sociopath. Best camping/canoeing trips are when he is leading the pack. Awesome guitar skills, and loves that cannabis. Bit of an asshole, but the later makes up for it.

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    1. The king is only as good as the sheep let him be.....

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  7. Replies
    1. ^Who rattled your cage?

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    2. Theme's appears the same day TCO appears, interesting.

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  8. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  9. Sociopaths often come to be great engineers, they may create the buildings that ordinary people cannot even imagine!and that's not a weird thing, just a personal quality.

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