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Why So Many Artists Are Highly Sensitive People

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Re: Why So Many Artists Are Highly Sensitive People

#21
post #4

Better title would be "Why so many sensitive people are artists" imo. Small change on the first glance but important one.

But, there's quite a big difference between 'sensitive' and 'highly sensitive'. The latter being someone who most would perceive to be too sensitive.

Otherwise your suggested change definitely makes the title less click-baitish.

Re: Why So Many Artists Are Highly Sensitive People

#22

This helps to underscore that the field of mathematics is also an art form, since the behavior symptoms high-level math researchers are indistinguishable from "artist types"; Goedel, Riemann, Turing, and others come to mind. The "sensitivity" and "complexity" suggested in this article are not isolated to artists.

No I don't think this is quite right. The romantic artistic image of the mathematician is a prevalent one now, and we choose to see examples to fit the type. But it hasn't always been this way. Before the early 1800s the mathematician was scene as a pragmatic, man of the world sort. Or so Amir Alexander argues in his book Dual at Dawn: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Duel-Dawn-Mathematics-Histories-Tech...

I agree with you that sensitivity and complexity are not isolated to artists, and a agree to some extent that mathematics is an art form, just wanted to point out that 'mathematician as tortured artist' is a relatively modern trope.

Re: Why So Many Artists Are Highly Sensitive People

#23
post #13
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This reads like the wrong combination of shoes and floor, resulting in huge ESD problems. Highly individual, too.

Nope..Cork sandals will produce the same effect. It's not highly individual, it is highly reported many times by many people, but usually cast off as irrelevant or unimportant to people's daily life...

Dude, you really need to make sure your gear is grounded properly. You should not be getting electrical shocks from touching stuff. I can't begin to tell you how many times we've had screwball problems with equipment that had floating voltages due to poor earthing---problems that went away the minute we fixed the wiring. (The guys maintaining said equipment though nothing wrong of the fact that they were getting shocked and said nothing about it for months!)

Re: Why So Many Artists Are Highly Sensitive People

#24
Because they are expected to behave that way. I have know several artists who played back and forth on the highly sensitive spectrum over time. A few stooped behaving this way when they gave up on being artists.

The thing is stereotypes attract people to behave like X, and they promote X in borderline peope. Programmers often get to behave introverted and you can see shits when someone moves from say sales into programming.

Re: Why So Many Artists Are Highly Sensitive People

#25
post #3

Answering a personality questionnaire is always a great opportunity for me to appreciate my talents. Take the question "Do you have a rich, complex inner life?" Well, I certainly do, and thanks for reminding me to dwell on this fact.

What a vapid and narcissistic comment. Only on hacker news.

Re: Why So Many Artists Are Highly Sensitive People

#26
post #22

This helps to underscore that the field of mathematics is also an art form, since the behavior symptoms high-level math researchers are indistinguishable from "artist types"; Goedel, Riemann, Turing, and others come to mind. The "sensitivity" and "complexity" suggested in this article are not isolated to artists.

No I don't think this is quite right. The romantic artistic image of the mathematician is a prevalent one now, and we choose to see examples to fit the type. But it hasn't always been this way. Before the early 1800s the mathematician was scene as a pragmatic, man of the world sort. Or so Amir Alexander argues in his book Dual at Dawn: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Duel-Dawn-Mathematics-Histories-Tech... I agree with you t…

It's hard for a "man of the world" to make time in the 21st century to learn enough about mathematics to make meaningful contributions to the field which still doing the other things being a "man of the world" requires, except perhaps in a few isolated places that happen to overlap something practical. Or, in other words, we programmers probably overestimate the ability for non-mathematicians to contribute to the field because we happen to be sitting in the very best such place already.

Same reason we don't get true renaissance people anymore; one can not even know everything about genetics, to say nothing of biology, let alone half-a-dozen other disciplines.

Are these traits truly associated with "artistry" and "creativity", or are we simply in a place where we've done so much than moving things forward requires monomania?

Re: Why So Many Artists Are Highly Sensitive People

#27
post #5

“If you ask me what I came to do in this world, I, an artist, will answer you: I am here to live out loud” ― Émile Zola A true artist is one who never calls him/herself an artist is my stance. It is usually when society sees a person's works and starts to give positive reviews that the inner artist is unleashed on the world. Sensitivity plays a part, but only insofar as the artist can channel art through the correct…

I surveyed a related question once: "Do you have to make money to be an entrepreneur?"

Responses were quite bipolar, though startup people tended to say "no". My own background was in running a small business before working in startups and so it was something I always think about.

Re: Why So Many Artists Are Highly Sensitive People

#28

A more interesting line of inquiry is why so many of those blessed with the highest instincts for creativity have so little empathy towards those around them. As if they are so in thrall with their own genius they have little capacity for the smallest kindnesses. Or are so focused on manifesting the perfect visions contained in their minds, any quotidian concerns seem far beneath them and an utter waste of time. Cons…

After a lifetime of encounters where it's clear that what goes on in your head is not what goes on in other heads, you start to feel separate. Alone in a very real sense. I've not seen Einstein's description of the "glass pane" but it's a decent way of putting it.

And by the way, the lack of empathy tends to be a two-way street.

Re: Why So Many Artists Are Highly Sensitive People

#29
I was hoping for a scale on the "temperamental sensitivity" and "rich inner life" quiz at the end.

I found myself at 18/24 and anecdotally, I'm highly sensitive to abrupt noise changes and lighting in physical spaces. Presumably I'm not the only here that keeps their home office only dimly lit with consistent white noise from the central air fan.

Re: Why So Many Artists Are Highly Sensitive People

#30
post #13
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This reads like the wrong combination of shoes and floor, resulting in huge ESD problems. Highly individual, too.

Nope..Cork sandals will produce the same effect. It's not highly individual, it is highly reported many times by many people, but usually cast off as irrelevant or unimportant to people's daily life...

I get shocks "all the time". It's when humidity is low and I build up a static charge, which happens in the winter because outside air hasn't got much water in it, then it gets heated to room temperature and has very low humidity. There's no mystery here. I bought my first wireless router simply because I was frying my wired routers; I'd systematically walk through all the ports, destroying them one by one, then I'd have to buy a new one. I realized it was cheaper to pay much more and go wireless than keep buying wired routers. I cringe when it happens now because I always know I'm frying something, I just don't know what. Fortunately, I've got a house humidifier now, which mitigates the problem.

Alternatively, as others say, you've got a grounding problem. But that's a different sort of shock.

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