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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

#31

Post by hellofunk »

tkmh wrote: post #22
hellofunk wrote: post #19

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…

Fair enough. I like to think of math as an art form, and I think on some levels it certainly is (as much as I'd also consider Einstein an artist in many ways). The end product is different than an "artist" but I think a lot of the thought processes overlap and cause similar perspectives.

Re: Why So Many Artists Are Highly Sensitive People

#32

Post by cmrdporcupine »

fbonetti wrote: post #25
_yosefk wrote: 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.

I think you're missing the critical tone of the parent's comment.

Re: Why So Many Artists Are Highly Sensitive People

#34

Post by tkmh »

jerf wrote: post #26
tkmh wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 fie…

Yes, no one is a renaissance person any more. But I don't think that there were as many renaissance people in the past as we think. Admittedly I don't have much evidence for this. In the case of maths, I think our idea that many more mathematicians used to be polymaths in the past is slightly skewed dues to the fact that until about 2 centuries ago, 'mathematician' and 'physicist' were not distinct categories. We think of Gauss and Euler as polymaths, but Euler was by all accounts a terrible philosopher.

EDIT: I just remembered that Gauss was an extremely competent philologist, so maybe the above is no longer valid.

Re: Why So Many Artists Are Highly Sensitive People

#35

Post by fche »

fbonetti wrote: post #25
_yosefk wrote: 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.

The PuffHo article is vapic & narcissistic the same way.

Re: Why So Many Artists Are Highly Sensitive People

#37

Post by dlsx »

fche wrote: post #35
fbonetti wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

The PuffHo article is vapic & narcissistic the same way.

Indeed.

Fuck huffpo. The mainstream media is a joke. Pushing status quo so that only pussy bitch made assholes pursue art.

Where does this leave the alpha male artist who can take criticism and has no fear?

Clearly no place for such masculinity.

Fucking fuck off liberal die hards. Steve Jobs said "great artists steal."

If that isn't a war mentality I don't know what is.

Again fuck all forms of mainstream news stop posting that garbage here.

Re: Why So Many Artists Are Highly Sensitive People

#38

Post by javajosh »

MawNicker wrote: post #20
fitzwatermellow wrote: post #18

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…

They're unique in their local environment. They have a sensibility that annoys people. When their environment fails to immediately satisfy them it gets tired of feeling their negative emotions. They're expected to be happy or shut up. The more they develop this component of themselves the more they're denied empathy. They get tired of giving and not receiving. What we call empathy nowadays is actually just sympathy.…

There's a lot to that mechanism you describe, which is essentially a cycle of (psychic) violence. It is a cycle initiated by very real otherness on one side, and the other side's instinct discomfort with otherness. So, essentially this problem would be solved of more people sought out and learned to enjoy diversity in personality. (e.g. http://ncase.me/polygons/ but applied to personality, not race.)

Re: Why So Many Artists Are Highly Sensitive People

#39

Post by keithpeter »

_yosefk wrote: 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.

The first half of that set of questions could be useful.

Some of the wording needs tweaking (example from OA)...

"2. Do you become unpleasantly aroused when a lot is going on around you?"

...aroused being used in the psychology sense by questioners no doubt but could be misunderstood. Perhaps pop an 'opposite' question in later on, something like...

"Do you feel happier when there is a lot happening in a place, lots of people, lots of noise?"

Re: Why So Many Artists Are Highly Sensitive People

#40

Post by kitsunesoba »

MawNicker wrote: post #20
fitzwatermellow wrote: post #18

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…

They're unique in their local environment. They have a sensibility that annoys people. When their environment fails to immediately satisfy them it gets tired of feeling their negative emotions. They're expected to be happy or shut up. The more they develop this component of themselves the more they're denied empathy. They get tired of giving and not receiving. What we call empathy nowadays is actually just sympathy.…

Well said. We should more often drop the labels and categories entirely and simply treat each other as fellow humans.
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