Power poses: stand like a boss (and catch more eyes on dating sites)
April 4, 2016 8:35 PM Subscribe
Forcing a smile genuinely decreases stress, so what if you were to stand with pride even when you feel less than super? You don't have to pretend to fly like Superman (previously), but it does help to stand like Wonder Woman. Your body language shapes who you are. TLDW: Business Insider's summary with screencaps, or read the slightly more lengthy summary of the study at Harvard Business School by Amy Cuddy and coauthors Dana R. Carney and Andy J. Yap of Columbia University. Such power poses can also better your chances on quick-reaction dating apps.
Corrected in 1. And now I know.
posted by filthy light thief at 8:54 PM on April 4, 2016 [3 favorites]
posted by filthy light thief at 8:54 PM on April 4, 2016 [3 favorites]
Also skewered on Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. "Outside in, Kimmy!"
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 8:59 PM on April 4, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 8:59 PM on April 4, 2016 [2 favorites]
What aaronetc said. Also, Andrew Gelman has posted a response to Amy Cuddy's reaction to his blog post unpacking criticisms of the power pose research. It's interesting because Gelman suggests a "time-reversal heuristic" for making sense of surprising findings like Cuddy's:
One helpful (I think) way to think about this episode is to turn things around. Suppose the Ranehill et al. experiment, with its null finding, had come first. A large study finding no effect. And then Cuddy et al. had run a replication under slightly different conditions with a much smaller sample size and found statistically significance under non-preregistered conditions. Would we be inclined to believe it? I don’t think so. At the very least, we’d have to conclude that any power-pose effect is fragile.posted by honest knave at 9:12 PM on April 4, 2016 [4 favorites]
I'm a skeptic skeptic on this. I've tried power posing (why not?) and I don't think it did exactly what I was expecting or what anyone else would expect given Cuddy's talks and media noise. However, I did actually find that I felt calmer and a little more centered and alert. I also tried some some minimal yoga type breathing and stretching. (Hooray for roomy "single seat" bathrooms). Similar effect. I think there's a little 'mindfulness' effect.
I'm reminded of the concept of 'hygge' which has been going around on the meme/Facebook thing over the last couple years. It seems especially popular among my fellow Pacific Northwesterners in the soggy doldrums of winter. Thing is, this idea of getting outdoors, being with friends, having warm and cozy things is pretty elusive here. [Insert list of weather complaints, mud, lack of free time, alienation from friends/neighbors, etc..] However, I find that even thinking about the concept seems to be very calming and makes the weather and darkness feel bearable.
Brains are weird. Effects can be subtle.
posted by amanda at 9:20 PM on April 4, 2016 [2 favorites]
I'm reminded of the concept of 'hygge' which has been going around on the meme/Facebook thing over the last couple years. It seems especially popular among my fellow Pacific Northwesterners in the soggy doldrums of winter. Thing is, this idea of getting outdoors, being with friends, having warm and cozy things is pretty elusive here. [Insert list of weather complaints, mud, lack of free time, alienation from friends/neighbors, etc..] However, I find that even thinking about the concept seems to be very calming and makes the weather and darkness feel bearable.
Brains are weird. Effects can be subtle.
posted by amanda at 9:20 PM on April 4, 2016 [2 favorites]
This is Joe Rogan Science. On his Kelly Starrett show they said the formula for perfect standing posture is you squish your butt cheeks together.
posted by bukvich at 9:22 PM on April 4, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by bukvich at 9:22 PM on April 4, 2016 [1 favorite]
I'm fine with stating this as a fact even if the evidence is tenuous. Whatever, if it helps a few people feel better about themselves that's great.
But I'm not even slightly fine with corporate training programs that tell women power posing is something they should do before big presentations to help boost their confidence and communicate in a way that's more corporate-credible, and make them all practice it together. Having been in this exact training situation, it's like being in the slumber party from Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret chanting about increasing your bust - completely fucking ludicrous. I kept looking for the camera crew to bust in crowing about how thoroughly they'd just punked us. If your company has such a problem with women in leadership that you think it's worth spinning up a class for mid-career women to help them see themselves as leaders, don't insult them by pretending the issue is that they just aren't using the latest TED talk snake oil to feel better about themselves. Ugh.
Power poses may work for some people but they made me want to ragequit my industry for inflicting this goofy bullshit on me. With extreme confidence.
posted by town of cats at 9:48 PM on April 4, 2016 [30 favorites]
But I'm not even slightly fine with corporate training programs that tell women power posing is something they should do before big presentations to help boost their confidence and communicate in a way that's more corporate-credible, and make them all practice it together. Having been in this exact training situation, it's like being in the slumber party from Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret chanting about increasing your bust - completely fucking ludicrous. I kept looking for the camera crew to bust in crowing about how thoroughly they'd just punked us. If your company has such a problem with women in leadership that you think it's worth spinning up a class for mid-career women to help them see themselves as leaders, don't insult them by pretending the issue is that they just aren't using the latest TED talk snake oil to feel better about themselves. Ugh.
Power poses may work for some people but they made me want to ragequit my industry for inflicting this goofy bullshit on me. With extreme confidence.
posted by town of cats at 9:48 PM on April 4, 2016 [30 favorites]
But I just bought a cringing desk!
posted by lefty lucky cat at 10:01 PM on April 4, 2016 [29 favorites]
posted by lefty lucky cat at 10:01 PM on April 4, 2016 [29 favorites]
As someone who is a statistically-minded research psychologist: Not only are power poses bullshit, but they're a very particular kind of bullshit that stems from the coincidental timing of (1) psychology's large-scale abandonment of the business of developing formal theories, and (2) the lucrative Gen-X-driven market for dudebro business school snake oil. While most psychologists really do want to do good research, a depressingly large share of our "public-facing mini-celebrities" are all show and no substance.
In post-theory psychology, researchers will often find themselves sitting around and just spit-balling "What if?" experimental designs. "What if posture really changed confidence?" "What if menstruation influenced peoples political outlook?" The inspiration for the experiments comes largely from the gut, and their advocates brag openly about their ability to spin a narrative after the fact. When cornered, they can easily fall back on "More research is needed" and "I'm hoping to collaborate with an fMRI group to address that!"
Of course, many of the pilot studies examining these spit-balled ideas go nowhere, ending up in the "file drawer." However, there are also a thousand ways to tweak the experiment and the data to bolster shoddy results. This is why replication is so important: If an effect is real, and stable enough to have any relevance in an applied context, then it should emerge even when the experimental design is moderately different.
Instead, a certain class of established psychologists are deeply skeptical that replication is a meaningful method for evaluating an idea. This is because they are so accustomed to "Gut First, Storytelling Later" approach that they use it to try to explain away inconvenient failures of replication. This brings us to the current "replication crisis," which is nothing short of the chickens finally starting to come home to roost.
Unfortunately (meaning no disrespect to the author of this post), this facade is not only compelling enough to sucker in professional scientists, but is largely unquestioned by a general public who find out about these "discoveries" in breathless press releases and effusive Ted Talks. No market is hungrier for this kind of gut-driven work than the white-collar enterprise, which represents a healthy book market (available for sale in an airport near you!).
The public largely lacks the technical background (statistical, methodological, etc.) to evaluate the research, and most of the "real" research papers backing these claims are hidden away behind paywalls regardless. The overwhelming majority of science journalists are only marginally more knowledgeable than people off the street, so they report what "science" has discovered almost entirely uncritically. This leaves those of us in the field who have higher standards feeling a bit like astronomers who keep being asked what we think of the latest findings in astrology.
posted by belarius at 10:32 PM on April 4, 2016 [70 favorites]
In post-theory psychology, researchers will often find themselves sitting around and just spit-balling "What if?" experimental designs. "What if posture really changed confidence?" "What if menstruation influenced peoples political outlook?" The inspiration for the experiments comes largely from the gut, and their advocates brag openly about their ability to spin a narrative after the fact. When cornered, they can easily fall back on "More research is needed" and "I'm hoping to collaborate with an fMRI group to address that!"
Of course, many of the pilot studies examining these spit-balled ideas go nowhere, ending up in the "file drawer." However, there are also a thousand ways to tweak the experiment and the data to bolster shoddy results. This is why replication is so important: If an effect is real, and stable enough to have any relevance in an applied context, then it should emerge even when the experimental design is moderately different.
Instead, a certain class of established psychologists are deeply skeptical that replication is a meaningful method for evaluating an idea. This is because they are so accustomed to "Gut First, Storytelling Later" approach that they use it to try to explain away inconvenient failures of replication. This brings us to the current "replication crisis," which is nothing short of the chickens finally starting to come home to roost.
Unfortunately (meaning no disrespect to the author of this post), this facade is not only compelling enough to sucker in professional scientists, but is largely unquestioned by a general public who find out about these "discoveries" in breathless press releases and effusive Ted Talks. No market is hungrier for this kind of gut-driven work than the white-collar enterprise, which represents a healthy book market (available for sale in an airport near you!).
The public largely lacks the technical background (statistical, methodological, etc.) to evaluate the research, and most of the "real" research papers backing these claims are hidden away behind paywalls regardless. The overwhelming majority of science journalists are only marginally more knowledgeable than people off the street, so they report what "science" has discovered almost entirely uncritically. This leaves those of us in the field who have higher standards feeling a bit like astronomers who keep being asked what we think of the latest findings in astrology.
posted by belarius at 10:32 PM on April 4, 2016 [70 favorites]
Everything I needed to know about posture I learned from Joel Hodgson and Mike Nelson.
I've got to think tall, talk tall, stand tall, walk tall, shave tall, jump tall, and crouch tall.
posted by deadaluspark at 10:57 PM on April 4, 2016 [3 favorites]
I've got to think tall, talk tall, stand tall, walk tall, shave tall, jump tall, and crouch tall.
posted by deadaluspark at 10:57 PM on April 4, 2016 [3 favorites]
As Gelman rightly notes, the actual evidence is weak. Sounds like more psych bullshit.
posted by MisantropicPainforest at 11:01 PM on April 4, 2016
posted by MisantropicPainforest at 11:01 PM on April 4, 2016
MisantropicPainforest: "Sounds like more psych bullshit."
Please don't overgeneralise.
posted by langtonsant at 11:07 PM on April 4, 2016 [2 favorites]
Please don't overgeneralise.
posted by langtonsant at 11:07 PM on April 4, 2016 [2 favorites]
Oh, good heavens: The power poses.
Last summer, I was stuck on a business trip with a power-obsessed colleague who had apparently been reading up on power poses to prepare for our meetings. She spent the whole 20 minutes of her presentation to our internal team cycling through pose after pose: Hands on hips, the forward lean, then back to hands on hips, then back to the forward lean. Seated, she'd make her body as large as possible.
And the thing is, she's pretty smart and everyone knows it and respects her for her talent. Watching her force herself into this manufactured posing style (while assuming she alone knew about power poses) was embarrassing for her and for anyone who recognized the charade.
posted by mochapickle at 11:09 PM on April 4, 2016 [10 favorites]
Last summer, I was stuck on a business trip with a power-obsessed colleague who had apparently been reading up on power poses to prepare for our meetings. She spent the whole 20 minutes of her presentation to our internal team cycling through pose after pose: Hands on hips, the forward lean, then back to hands on hips, then back to the forward lean. Seated, she'd make her body as large as possible.
And the thing is, she's pretty smart and everyone knows it and respects her for her talent. Watching her force herself into this manufactured posing style (while assuming she alone knew about power poses) was embarrassing for her and for anyone who recognized the charade.
posted by mochapickle at 11:09 PM on April 4, 2016 [10 favorites]
Let's not throw the baby out with the bath water. There are no hormonal changes, but creative visualization is a thing.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 11:39 PM on April 4, 2016 [3 favorites]
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 11:39 PM on April 4, 2016 [3 favorites]
Oh, absolutely. But this particular person was more interested in demonstrating power than gaining power more organically through strong leadership techniques like relationship building, empathy, vision, judgment, etc.
Some people go for power poses as a shortcut.
posted by mochapickle at 11:51 PM on April 4, 2016 [1 favorite]
Some people go for power poses as a shortcut.
posted by mochapickle at 11:51 PM on April 4, 2016 [1 favorite]
In the "helps to stand like Wonder Woman" link, it annoys me that the presenter implies that *she* is standing like Wonder woman, but she's totally not. Her shoulders are internally rotated, in a "minimize the breasts" posture that some women take which appears anything but confident.
posted by mysterious_stranger at 12:01 AM on April 5, 2016 [5 favorites]
posted by mysterious_stranger at 12:01 AM on April 5, 2016 [5 favorites]
Yeah....
Someone told the conservative party this in the UK.
It did not go well.
posted by Just this guy, y'know at 12:55 AM on April 5, 2016 [10 favorites]
Someone told the conservative party this in the UK.
It did not go well.
posted by Just this guy, y'know at 12:55 AM on April 5, 2016 [10 favorites]
Manspreading gets its ideology.
posted by Segundus at 3:13 AM on April 5, 2016 [11 favorites]
posted by Segundus at 3:13 AM on April 5, 2016 [11 favorites]
>the formula for perfect standing posture is you squish your butt cheeks together.
And yet if you squish someone else's, they show you the door! It's a very fine line!
posted by Sutekh at 4:11 AM on April 5, 2016 [6 favorites]
And yet if you squish someone else's, they show you the door! It's a very fine line!
posted by Sutekh at 4:11 AM on April 5, 2016 [6 favorites]
Maybe this is bullshit, but I totally tried it in the bathroom of my last job. It made me laugh, which made me feel better and I could go back to my desk with a smile.
posted by Biblio at 5:24 AM on April 5, 2016 [3 favorites]
posted by Biblio at 5:24 AM on April 5, 2016 [3 favorites]
Isn't this kind of the oldest schtick in the world? And Harvard and Columbia are only twigging to it now?
Of course, it would explain a lot about Harvard and Columbia.
posted by IndigoJones at 5:56 AM on April 5, 2016
Of course, it would explain a lot about Harvard and Columbia.
posted by IndigoJones at 5:56 AM on April 5, 2016
the Power Pose i've used most often is Weeping For My Lost Homeland Like J'onn J'onzz, The Martian Manhunter
I tried posing like Todd McFarlane's Spider-man during a sales meeting and accidentally dislocated all the joints in my body.
posted by Strange Interlude at 6:27 AM on April 5, 2016 [4 favorites]
I tried posing like Todd McFarlane's Spider-man during a sales meeting and accidentally dislocated all the joints in my body.
posted by Strange Interlude at 6:27 AM on April 5, 2016 [4 favorites]
Whatever, if it helps a few people feel better about themselves that's great.
Isn't that the fundamental justification for the whole set of herbal/alternative medicine claims though? It wouldn't attract nearly so much criticism if it wasn't usually followed by a sales pitch.
posted by sneebler at 7:15 AM on April 5, 2016 [1 favorite]
Isn't that the fundamental justification for the whole set of herbal/alternative medicine claims though? It wouldn't attract nearly so much criticism if it wasn't usually followed by a sales pitch.
posted by sneebler at 7:15 AM on April 5, 2016 [1 favorite]
Ohmigod. Why do professional business motivators have to ruin everything? Some of these narratives just go hand-in-hand with the "women just don't negotiate" claptrap that is apparently gospel truth now. And the corollary accepted truth that men do negotiate and that's why they are so far ahead. It has been my anecdotal experience that some women are quite comfortable negotiating and that some men really, really aren't. It's also been my experience that men are offered higher at the get-go and penalized less for pushing. Women are offered less at the start and can be quite harshly penalized for pushing.
But placebo effects and creative visualizations are certainly things. There have been studies that women and girls when told that women are often less adept at math do much worse on tests of math aptitude than women who are told a neutral or inspiring story about math. Minority students told similar stories about minorities experienced even greater effects.
On a personal level, if I power pose before a presentation and the jackass who always talks over me seems to listen with actual attention for once, that will give me greater confidence in general and then the next time, I might feel like I can actual command the space better. Respect breeds confidence. Confidence is taken as a sign of leadership. So when reduced down to sample sizes of 1, you can have positive momentum and have that feel like real change. Even if not hormonal change. And if you take a moment of mindfulness about confidence before speaking to a group or sharing your contributions, it can't hurt.
Standing in a room full of women being directed in mass to act like Wonder Woman is... not great.
posted by amanda at 7:24 AM on April 5, 2016 [7 favorites]
But placebo effects and creative visualizations are certainly things. There have been studies that women and girls when told that women are often less adept at math do much worse on tests of math aptitude than women who are told a neutral or inspiring story about math. Minority students told similar stories about minorities experienced even greater effects.
On a personal level, if I power pose before a presentation and the jackass who always talks over me seems to listen with actual attention for once, that will give me greater confidence in general and then the next time, I might feel like I can actual command the space better. Respect breeds confidence. Confidence is taken as a sign of leadership. So when reduced down to sample sizes of 1, you can have positive momentum and have that feel like real change. Even if not hormonal change. And if you take a moment of mindfulness about confidence before speaking to a group or sharing your contributions, it can't hurt.
Standing in a room full of women being directed in mass to act like Wonder Woman is... not great.
posted by amanda at 7:24 AM on April 5, 2016 [7 favorites]
The way to make gold is to practice on the credulity of mankind <---- 19th century Alchemist
posted by bukvich at 7:24 AM on April 5, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by bukvich at 7:24 AM on April 5, 2016 [2 favorites]
On re-review of all this, it seems the issue is over-reaching - there are some small benefits to better posture and stance, but it's not going to move you from the mail room to the board room in a day.
But that's not to say a more positive, assertive stance or posture doesn't change interactions, as compared to contracted, protected stances. Creative visualization sounds like business-speak "achieve your inner super-hero" fluff, but people do react almost instantly at a very basic level to visual cues, unless I'm mistaken.
The refutations look to address the chemical changes and risk-taking that Cuddy et al claim come from standing in a power pose for two minutes, and I'm failing to find any research on internal reactions to poses and postures, beyond the dating-related "which way will you swipe" study that was covered by NPR (last link in the OP). But that's probably because I'm failing to find the right terms to classify this sort of research.
posted by filthy light thief at 7:46 AM on April 5, 2016 [1 favorite]
But that's not to say a more positive, assertive stance or posture doesn't change interactions, as compared to contracted, protected stances. Creative visualization sounds like business-speak "achieve your inner super-hero" fluff, but people do react almost instantly at a very basic level to visual cues, unless I'm mistaken.
The refutations look to address the chemical changes and risk-taking that Cuddy et al claim come from standing in a power pose for two minutes, and I'm failing to find any research on internal reactions to poses and postures, beyond the dating-related "which way will you swipe" study that was covered by NPR (last link in the OP). But that's probably because I'm failing to find the right terms to classify this sort of research.
posted by filthy light thief at 7:46 AM on April 5, 2016 [1 favorite]
but it's not going to move you from the mail room to the board room in a day.
People - perhaps I should say media consumers - want to believe that something gimmicky and seemingly easy like this (rather than personal favors or inside contacts, crazy amounts of hard / obsessive work, or just plain luck of being in the right place at the right time) will get them rich and famous and appreciated. Hence nonsense like this that gets trotted out periodically.
posted by aught at 7:53 AM on April 5, 2016 [4 favorites]
People - perhaps I should say media consumers - want to believe that something gimmicky and seemingly easy like this (rather than personal favors or inside contacts, crazy amounts of hard / obsessive work, or just plain luck of being in the right place at the right time) will get them rich and famous and appreciated. Hence nonsense like this that gets trotted out periodically.
posted by aught at 7:53 AM on April 5, 2016 [4 favorites]
Not only are power poses bullshit, but they're a very particular kind of bullshit that stems from the coincidental timing of (1) psychology's large-scale abandonment of the business of developing formal theories, and (2) the lucrative Gen-X-driven market for dudebro business school snake oil.
Hang on with that Gen-X stuff, the media's taught me that everything is terrible now because of snake people.
posted by sgranade at 8:31 AM on April 5, 2016 [1 favorite]
Hang on with that Gen-X stuff, the media's taught me that everything is terrible now because of snake people.
posted by sgranade at 8:31 AM on April 5, 2016 [1 favorite]
More applicable to TFA, this points to why I complain when other physicists and engineers around me dismiss psychology as a "soft science". Getting a repeatable, statistically-significant result when working with humans is hard.
posted by sgranade at 8:35 AM on April 5, 2016
posted by sgranade at 8:35 AM on April 5, 2016
sgranade: Hang on with that Gen-X stuff, the media's taught me that everything is terrible now because of snake people.
That's lizard person, thankyouverymuch. We have limbs.
Wait, never mind - IGNORE ME!
posted by filthy light thief at 9:10 AM on April 5, 2016 [1 favorite]
That's lizard person, thankyouverymuch. We have limbs.
Wait, never mind - IGNORE ME!
posted by filthy light thief at 9:10 AM on April 5, 2016 [1 favorite]
Putting on my devil's advocate hat, I think it's fair to counter that by saying that it doesn't matter that it's hard that doesn't give social scientists an excuse NOT to you know, do actual SCIENCE.
I agree that deriding a discipline as a "soft" science is shitty. To me, "soft" science is short-hand for, "really hard stuff where there are a ton of variables that we know we're not every going to fully understand so we do the best we can."
In some ways, it's like early physics and chemistry when things "moved through the ether" and other stuff that, today, seems kind of silly. It was the best that could be done at the time and without that foundation, more modern understanding would be a lot father behind. The difference is that, today, we know that it's imperfect and we know it will be improved on later.
The folks behind the "power poses" study seem to have embraced the problems with media reporting on science and use the term "soft" science to mean "sloppy" science.
posted by VTX at 10:05 AM on April 5, 2016 [2 favorites]
I agree that deriding a discipline as a "soft" science is shitty. To me, "soft" science is short-hand for, "really hard stuff where there are a ton of variables that we know we're not every going to fully understand so we do the best we can."
In some ways, it's like early physics and chemistry when things "moved through the ether" and other stuff that, today, seems kind of silly. It was the best that could be done at the time and without that foundation, more modern understanding would be a lot father behind. The difference is that, today, we know that it's imperfect and we know it will be improved on later.
The folks behind the "power poses" study seem to have embraced the problems with media reporting on science and use the term "soft" science to mean "sloppy" science.
posted by VTX at 10:05 AM on April 5, 2016 [2 favorites]
mochapickle: Last summer, I was stuck on a business trip with a power-obsessed colleague who had apparently been reading up on power poses to prepare for our meetings. She spent the whole 20 minutes of her presentation to our internal team cycling through pose after pose: Hands on hips, the forward lean, then back to hands on hips, then back to the forward lean. Seated, she'd make her body as large as possible.
You know who else practised his power poses?
posted by clawsoon at 10:51 AM on April 5, 2016 [2 favorites]
You know who else practised his power poses?
posted by clawsoon at 10:51 AM on April 5, 2016 [2 favorites]
filthy light thief: But that's not to say a more positive, assertive stance or posture doesn't change interactions, as compared to contracted, protected stances.
Oh, it can change interactions, all right.
How it changes interactions depends on how good you've become at faking this particular kind of sincerity. If it's not properly integrated into context and so well done that it looks natural, it turns people off and convinces them that you're a fake.
And there's sometimes a Dunning-Kruger effect going on. I know a couple of guys who have been doing the artificially deep voice and power stance for years, and they still come across as fake when they do.
posted by clawsoon at 11:00 AM on April 5, 2016 [5 favorites]
Oh, it can change interactions, all right.
How it changes interactions depends on how good you've become at faking this particular kind of sincerity. If it's not properly integrated into context and so well done that it looks natural, it turns people off and convinces them that you're a fake.
And there's sometimes a Dunning-Kruger effect going on. I know a couple of guys who have been doing the artificially deep voice and power stance for years, and they still come across as fake when they do.
posted by clawsoon at 11:00 AM on April 5, 2016 [5 favorites]
I'm fine with stating this as a fact even if the evidence is tenuous. Whatever, if it helps a few people feel better about themselves that's great.
Well, that makes one of us. It's not a 'fact,' and it's barely a hypothesis.
You're allowed to feel better about yourself. You are not allowed your own definition of 'fact.'
posted by Dark Messiah at 1:31 PM on April 5, 2016 [2 favorites]
Well, that makes one of us. It's not a 'fact,' and it's barely a hypothesis.
You're allowed to feel better about yourself. You are not allowed your own definition of 'fact.'
posted by Dark Messiah at 1:31 PM on April 5, 2016 [2 favorites]
If instead, every focused on the science without sensationalizing it, perhaps we could figure out why there seems to be some effect and why it seems to affect some people and not others. Then maybe we could figure out something like power posing that works for everyone.
That's why it's not okay to just stop at, "Well, it seems to work for some people so I guess that's good enough." If you want to call it a "science" then there is no such thing as "good enough" and there shouldn't be until we know everything that IS knowable.
posted by VTX at 2:02 PM on April 5, 2016
That's why it's not okay to just stop at, "Well, it seems to work for some people so I guess that's good enough." If you want to call it a "science" then there is no such thing as "good enough" and there shouldn't be until we know everything that IS knowable.
posted by VTX at 2:02 PM on April 5, 2016
thanks Mochapickle and Clawsoon for your comments - you made me think about my current thinking about personal development and career growth. I spend a lot of time trying to display confidence and cosplay a businessman. But really, it's worse to come across as faking it than to be honest with my coworkers about who I am.
posted by rebent at 8:10 PM on April 5, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by rebent at 8:10 PM on April 5, 2016 [1 favorite]
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posted by aaronetc at 8:51 PM on April 4, 2016 [38 favorites]