demagogue on 3/4/2012 at 06:37
Are there any surprises here? What's our common denominator? Largely gaming. We stay in to play in make-believe worlds as much as or more as we go out to play. I think that self-selects a certain kind of personality already.
faetal on 3/4/2012 at 10:44
I'm not sure, but what I do know is that when people are writing about their love of solitude, it sounds great if you read it in Morgan Freeman's voice in your head.
Neb on 3/4/2012 at 11:17
Misread as Gordon Freeman.....achieved zen.
demagogue on 3/4/2012 at 11:26
haha that reminds me of a chat with a totally-deaf-since-birth guy. We kept asking about how reading 'sounds' to him, and he said he literally doesn't hear or feel anything. He couldn't tell you two words that rhymed to save his life, and didn't have any clue that ma sounds more like na than ga. They were all just arbitrary words and random symbols.
I tried to read words without "hearing" anything, and I have to say it's next to impossible. The best I can do is literally look at each letter as an artistic object one by one, hardly "reading". Then we asked him, so what the hell is it to read a word then? What does he "get" when he looks at the word. And he said he didn't know. The word just "comes to him" in his head, but he couldn't explain what "it" is that's coming to him any better than anyone else could imagine. I thought the idea was pretty mindblowing, sort of like your zen moment.
heywood on 12/4/2012 at 10:47
I think everybody needs some alone time to maintain their mental health.
I'm a moderate extrovert in the Jung/Myers-Briggs typology sense and could never work from home and always wish for more time with friends, but I need a certain amount of solitude otherwise over time I start to get demotivated, unfocused, frustrated and don't deal as well with stress.
However, I don't get the benefit of solitude unless I'm doing something active or interactive and my mind is focused. Nothing clears and refreshes my mind like a long, fast motorcycle ride or a day of skiing off on my own. Other things I really enjoy are taking off on my bicycle and getting lost, working on projects, or visiting museums & galleries. I don't like to spend my alone time doing typical relaxing things like reading books, going for walks, lying on the beach, or watching TV. I get bored, don't relax, and it doesn't help. Video games are a bit of an exception.
My wife is quite different. She's a real extrovert's extrovert, but when it's time to disconnect she likes to shut off the mind and veg out.
Gingerbread Man on 14/4/2012 at 17:42
Yeah, I'm like heywood's wife in that regard. I can't go anywhere in this town without running into someone I know, and I am an absolute extrovert whirlwind most of the time. But when I want peace and quiet, it'd take armed men to get me to reconnect.
Tocky on 17/4/2012 at 03:21
I'm happy with or without people. I talk openly and look folks in the eye except when I'm on a mission to get done with something quickly and then I'm in a bubble of ignore because I know if I start I'll be there awhile as an interested listener and prodder because I find I like most everyone. I need nature but I'm happiest to be in it with one or two others. On the other hand working outside alone and miles from another soul has a certain satisfaction to it. On the other other hand I feel more keenly watched when completely alone too. Hell, I don't know. I know I despise being on someone elses schedule. Being alone nixes hell out of that.
When my wife was gone a few weeks visiting our son there was never a more empty house. I don't like being HERE alone. Wandering in a strange city alone can be exhilerating but without her this place is a tomb. Well, a tomb with a cat scratching at the door.
Scots Taffer on 18/4/2012 at 04:02
Yeah, like GBM said.
I guess my default mode of being highly extrovert (ENFP/Idealist Champion for those into that) counteracts itself with rare cases of extreme introversion (more like introspection really, but whatever) and it's times like this where I want time away from EVERYONE (and I do mean everyone) and hide from FB for a week or so (where I'm a habitual poster otherwise).
