Having an alter ego can reduce anxiety, benefit confidence: research • Hacker News Board

Re: Having an alter ego can reduce anxiety, benefit confidence: research

#211

Post by samus » Fri, Aug 21, 2020, 1:23 PM UTC

laurent92 wrote: post #85

lefstathiou wrote: post #14

True Story: the guy who leads our sales team is a super star named John (legal name). He’s fearless, organized, focused, determined “and Canadian” as he would say. Any way, while he was a rising junior his GF came to the office one day and I heard her call him Jake (nowhere in his name legal name). I asked “who the hell is Jake?” to which she replied “oh, that’s what we call John back home”. I looked at him and he sa…

Actually, dissociation of character is a trait that is rewarded. Although people will claim they want kind-hearted people as lovers, they also very often conveniently ignore what they do for work, and how cruel they have to be, and the partners happily enjoy the shared money (or respect they have from the world). Lovers surely know it: hard to claim Che Guevarra’s wife, Stalin’s wife or Pablo Escobar’s wife didn’t kn…

We have little evidence that they used the dissociation trick. But I think it is not really required anyway. Most of us don't need it to get by with our daily lives. And it's far too simple to demonize the villains just by saying they used this trick. It is simply part of human nature to have empathy for those that we consider our own, and to be cruel to the rest. Similarly, to be able to silence our cognitive dissonance when we find out that the people around us and the system we live in have dark sides to them.

Re: Having an alter ego can reduce anxiety, benefit confidence: research

#212

Post by lokl » Fri, Aug 21, 2020, 1:39 PM UTC

DreamScatter wrote: post #206

lokl wrote: post #92

I had an unwanted alter ego once. A colleague called me by the wrong name for the entire time we worked together (a few months). I considered correcting him, but I wanted to see how it would play out.

if you didn't correct him, then it wasn't unwanted. so how did it play out?

It was initially unwanted, but it became interesting because it lasted so long. What made it possible was that we didn't work closely (different groups) and encountered each other only infrequently and usually one-on-one, so there weren't others around to correct him. When I left, there was a social event with mainly people from my group, so he was not present, and I don't actually know whether he ever learned of his error. Maybe my alter ego still lives in his memory.

Re: Having an alter ego can reduce anxiety, benefit confidence: research

#213

Post by klerpi » Sun, Aug 23, 2020, 2:48 AM UTC

lostgame wrote: post #151

Here's a neat story. I'm a transgender iOS programmer living in Toronto and I've been diagnosed with chronic anxiety and CPTSD. I am also a rapper/producer under the name 'Nikki Grace', on Spotify/Apple Music/Youtube, etc... I've been producing and engineering music for bands and other folks for about ten years, but I had never released any solo material. After my Mother's passing last year, I decided to strut out my…

Amazing read. Keep doing music and being awesome!

Re: Having an alter ego can reduce anxiety, benefit confidence: research

#214

Post by john4534243 » Sun, Aug 23, 2020, 12:48 PM UTC

lopmotr wrote: post #210

john4534243 wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Political ideology is OK but not religious ideology? Right. Religious ideology is without a doubt is exploitation. Political ideology that does not involve religion is probably coming out of good intentions. > Being a 2nd in command is OK but not a national leader? The point is he is not after power and did not try to become 2nd in command either. He left the minister position he had given after the war and left to…

If Guevara did everything the same but instead of Marxism, he was fighting to exterminate the blacks out of a genuine belief that it was a noble cause which would help people, would you still describe him in the same positive way? You already said you don't like communism, and I guess you don't like ethnic genocide either. So that wouldn't be a distinguishing factor.

> If Guevara did everything the same but instead of Marxism, he was fighting to exterminate the blacks out of a genuine belief that it was a noble cause which would help people, would you still describe him in the same positive way?

I don't see anything noble about genocide.

Re: Having an alter ego can reduce anxiety, benefit confidence: research

#215

Post by lopmotr » Mon, Aug 24, 2020, 2:28 AM UTC

john4534243 wrote: post #214

lopmotr wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If Guevara did everything the same but instead of Marxism, he was fighting to exterminate the blacks out of a genuine belief that it was a noble cause which would help people, would you still describe him in the same positive way? You already said you don't like communism, and I guess you don't like ethnic genocide either. So that wouldn't be a distinguishing factor.

> If Guevara did everything the same but instead of Marxism, he was fighting to exterminate the blacks out of a genuine belief that it was a noble cause which would help people, would you still describe him in the same positive way? I don't see anything noble about genocide.

But we've established that it's not based on you personally believing the goal is noble. It's the belief of the person fighting for it that matters.