Sunday, 8.10pm
Sheffield, U.K.
Myths give us our sense of personal identity, answering the question, ‘Who am I?’ – Rollo May
I had a few hours to myself today and spent them browsing through the bookshelves at a few charity shops.
There’s something about books that almost spiritual for me. They call to me in a way.
But what can possibly be there in a book that makes me, or anyone else, choose to pick it up?
I think it has something to do with words and connections.
A few weeks ago we were at the Leake Street Arches looking at the amazing art on long stretches of graffiti wall.
Unsurprisingly, a book on graffiti art jumped out at me.
In it I learned that graffiti began as a way that people wrote their names – it’s born out of playing with letters and words.
Some words spark an instant connection.
Over the last week or so I’ve been thinking about the role of professional social media, in particular LinkedIn.
My feed is full of a few specific types of posts.
There are the analyst researchers – a stream of reports, observations and commentary on things that are happening in the areas in which I am professionally interested.
There are the healthy fruits and vegetables of the social media world.
A Like is a way to bookmark these for when I have time to look at them.
Then there are the influencers, carefully crafted posts designed to hook you in and consume content from the creator.
There’s a snacking, high calorie low value feeling to these.
If I didn’t read them, nothing would really change, I suspect.
And then there are the points of view, the advisors and experts that tell you what you should do and why their one way is the best.
Which, as I have grown more experienced, turns out never to be as simple or straightforward as they might have you believe.
For example, take the idea that you have to be focused on a single thing – you need to develop your identity around one or very few core propositions that make it possible for people to decide whether they’re interested in you or not.
The word identity and this particular concern is what made me decide to pick up Chuck Palahniuk’s book “fugitives and refugees”.
He starts with a conversation in which he is told that “everyone has at least three identities”.
Which one of those are you supposed to choose and present to others?
I guess you can choose the one that you think will appeal to the most people, or the one that will appeal to the few people that will spend money on what you have to sell, or the one that you’re truly proud of and would like to be associated with.
Ah, it’s already getting tricky.
I’m a little worried that the professionalisation and speedup of everything is going to make it harder to find the really valuable lessons in life.
If you have to black out a 6 metre by 3 metre strip of wall and choose one word that truly captures the essence of what you’re thinking about or feeling or struggling with right now, then you’re going to take your time to get it right.
A good place to start is perhaps by finding words for this identity we have or want to have.
Cheers,
Karthik Suresh
Handcrafted insight 