Gerald Weinberg in one of his books talked about training himself to look less forbidding. I suppose that it was Secrets of Consulting, but am not sure.
Ask HN: Do you look angry while you work?
171–180 of 203 posts
Re: Ask HN: Do you look angry while you work?
#172haha apparently.. I'm a big softy but was told the other day that people are afraid to approach me because I scare them.
I guess a 6"2 dude glaring angrily at his screen all day is a bit scary
*edit. ha.. now I'm self-conscious I just noticed that my internal monologue leaks out sometimes.. and my internal monologue can use some fairly blue words at times...
Re: Ask HN: Do you look angry while you work?
#173Only when I’m talking to idiot managers.
Re: Ask HN: Do you look angry while you work?
#174I've gotten this feedback from those around me for years. Even before I was a coder, when I was an ESL teacher in China, I had multiple students approach me (those I had made friends with, they were all 20-somethings and over) and ask me if I was OK, because I looked angry. I appreciated their concern but I didn't feel angry, so I had no clue what they were talking about. It was only later that I learned about the co…
That tendency of other humans to jump to conclusions about a person's demeanor and personality based on facial expression is one of the most irritating characteristics of humans. No matter how many times we hear cliche's like "don't judge a book by its cover," people routinely (and confidently) do that all the time.
I regularly get apologised to by customer service people when I have been waiting for coffee of food. Usually something like "Sorry for the wait".
While I am waiting, I often retreat into my own thoughts, mentally processing some difficult problem or trying to plan out a project in my head. When I am thinking hard I adopt a "focus" face with a slight frown with lips pressed together.
The servers must be reading my face as annoyance or anger.
I always say thanks and smile when I collect my order so they know I wasn't unhappy, especially with them.
I guess most people are more "in the moment" and maintain a neutral or friendly face.
Re: Ask HN: Do you look angry while you work?
#175This happened with a friend. Anytime he read anything, his face made this big snarl like he was offended at what he was reading. It turned out he just needed reading glasses.
Re: Ask HN: Do you look angry while you work?
#176I was inspired by a friend who saved hundreds of Webcam selfies of himself at half hour intervals. The face.com API classified the majority as “sad” or “angry”. Mentioned in my Quantified Self talk here at 1m 15s: https://vimeo.com/42239564#t=1m15s This led to the development of LifeSlice, which lets anyone do the same, and I now have s as decade of 30-min periodic selfies. Not sure what I’ll do with them all but it’…
hmm, I had a script that took webcam selfie every minute for a year. I never thought to classify it till now. thanks, I'm going to make it again.
Re: Ask HN: Do you look angry while you work?
#177I am more 'angry' when I'm coding. Maybe it's also so people won't interrupt me? But mainly I think it's because when I code I enter a different mode which isn't as sociable. It's like the human interface task gets pushed down in priority. I once scared someone who interrupted me and all I did was look up at them... They left in a hurry. I literally wasn't trying to do that and I apologized to them later.
Re: Ask HN: Do you look angry while you work?
#178If your brain is not operating in the same mode used for hunting animals, are you even in flow?
I like this hypothesis!
Re: Ask HN: Do you look angry while you work?
#179American focus on looking happy or smiling when nothing happens that warrants it is truly bewildering.
:)
Re: Ask HN: Do you look angry while you work?
#180Frowning faces are common while deep in thoughts. Personally, I sigh loudly. Not out of annoyance or fatigue, I just sigh.
To get more oxygen to the brain maybe.