Internet Brain Food

If the internet has one overwhelmingly awesome feature, it's definitely the ability to bring me other people's thoughts and research with such ease.  I use Google Reader for this and it continually surprises me with what it reveals.

Take this for instance: a two-part post on Get Rich Slowly about how money does buy happiness.  It sums up a study that discovered that if money isn't buying you happiness, you're spending the wrong way.  Read the posts for tips on better ways to spend; my favorites are "buy experiences not stuff" and "delay consumption" and I was most surprised by "beware comparison shopping".  This falls very neatly in with my personal theory that money is a tool like any other.  The good or bad it does is related to how it's used, not any innate qualities.  (A favorite quote of mine: "Whoever said money can't buy happiness forgot about puppies!")

Does information like that change how you approach your finances?  Over the last year, DH and I have been trying to concentrate more on experiences than Stuff and it has definitely been good for us!  In digging through the last couple of weeks of posts at Get Rich Slowly, I also found a link to an interesting article that lists things we really could do without.  Some I agree strongly with (GPS, tanning beds) and others (microwaves, debit cards) I think provide a greater benefit than cost, especially in regards to time.

In addition to personal finance, I also get blogs and articles about a variety of science topics.  Yesterday, the Freakonomics blog posted about education versus expertise.  While I could use this to rail against the education system, instead it made me wonder about something psychological.  What the blog and the study it references seems to say (to me at least) is that people who spend time introverting a problem progress better than people who extravert it.  Now, there is definitely some personal bias coming through that interpretation, but the study supports the idea that mentally handling a problem (i.e. thinking about it) produces better comprehension than physically handling it (i.e. repeating a procedure over and over).  Coupled with Myers-Briggs typology (especially the I/E and N/S spectrums), there are all sorts of fun implications for that, but I think the salient point is that education should focus more on teaching people how to approach a problem, how to consider, rather than how to do.

What does the internet bring you?

Forget Baby Mozart... try The Chieftains

I find connections in odd things.  I often think that if I have any unique talent, it's pattern recognition (and possibly an above average memory).  For instance...

In one of the more brilliant musical combinations ever produced, the Chieftains and Nickel Creek do a mind-blowing version of "Raggle Taggle Gypsy" on The Chieftain's CD Further Down the Old Plank Road.  I dare you to sit still while listening to this song.  And the great thing is that this song is such a great representation of Myers-Briggs Personality Types.  No, really!

• The SJ's are the bass line... steady, reliably on beat, a small number of notes, rarely (but occasionally!) caught up in the emotion of the story, only changing speed or pitch when the complete music demands it.
• The SP's are the flute, the pipes... flirtatious, jumping in and out of the song, drawing the ear's attention, reliable in their unceasing movement.
• The NF's are the melody, the vocals... the human story, the emotion, the commonality amongst the other parts.
• The NT's are the mandolin... fast but (mostly) on beat, piquantly staccato, sometimes unnoticed, most notable when contrary to the rest of the music.

Of course, that still leaves the fiddle and cello... assuming there's a cello right there at the beginning... it may be a second bass.  And maybe a lighter stringed instrument... a harp or a Tiompan.  Not sure, there's a lot going on in this song.  Every time I changed the equalizer settings, I heard something new.  Not a bad life metaphor... change your bias, observe a complex new world.

I should note that in grand family tradition, I must have listened to the song over 20 times in a row while writing this post (my husband is thankful for headphones).  I'm still not tired of it.

Also, iTunes has no equalizer setting for "bluegrass" or "folk".  Really, iTunes?  The best preset you can do is "acoustic"?

An Oddity of Being an Introvert

I AM AN INTROVERT.  In our extraverted society, making that statement is akin to saying "Please excuse my asocial behavior.  I have a condition."  According to what I've read, introverts make up 20% - 25% of the population, maybe less.  So after an incredibly busy week, I intended to write a post about an introvert's perceptive differences, specifically how I coped with a socially-oriented week.

But it occurs to me that before you can have a conversation about introverts, you need a very clear definition.  Like many psychology terms, "introvert" has entered the mainstream vernacular in a way which retains a kernel of the original meaning but has gained some extra, incorrect nuance.  My definition of introvert stems from the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), based on Jung's personality typology.  So the introvert that I'm talking about is a person who:

• prefers small groups or solitude to large groups
• has a small, intimate group of friends (as opposed to a large group of acquaintances)
• lives internally, rather than externally
• expends energy in social situations and gains energy in being alone

Perhaps more importantly, an introvert is not (necessarily) shy, quiet, non-articulate, or anti-social.  Most introverted adults develop coping mechanisms for the largely extraverted world and can appear socially engaged, especially to those who only see the introvert in social situations.  An introvert is also not averse to socializing or meeting new people, although they tend to avoid situations requiring lengthy contact with multiple strangers, preferring smaller gatherings of friends.  MBTI also posits that all people show a combination of tendencies.  Very simply put, an introvert can (and should!) act like an extrovert and vice versa, dependent on their personal energy levels and how good their coping mechanisms are.

That's a long and terribly incomplete definition of introvert.  For more information about introverts and MBTI, an internet search engine will yield a plethora of results, some which are less reliable than others.  I would recommend the following:

• TypeLogic (a website with good information about the 16 personality types, including a fun bit about who they are historically and fictionally.  I'm an INTJ, which I'll continue to post about.)
• Socionics Types (a webpage that has a short, easy to understand comparison of extraverts and introverts)
• Please Understand Me (a basic introduction, complete with MBTI test, but it's a bit NT-centric)
• Please Understand Me II (further basics with some good information about interactions)
• Gifts Differing (much more technical but also more complete; written by one of the women responsible for developing the theory)

I'm breaking off the bit about my social week for another post.  The definition of an introvert alone is enough to chew over for the day, but let me leave off with an opinion: It's not socially acceptable to say yes to an invitation and then not hang out with people.  If an extravert is alone and suddenly needs company, she calls someone and goes out.  If an introvert is with a group and needs to be alone, can she suddenly say "I need to be by myself, see you later?"  I don't think our society is set up for that.  What would you all do?  Do my introverted friends have a way to deal with that situation?  Or do you have tells, ways to know that an outing will be too much?