Here is a link to the article we'll be discussing today: FREAK FACTOR: Discovering Uniqueness by Flaunting Weakness.
Once again, while I like the format involved in the papers on the Change This site, I fear that the subject is far more complicated than this slide show can really engage. The theme here is that we all have things we wish were different about ourselves, but instead of being insecure about them, turn them into a source of confidence.
That's a good suggestion, and this author may be pointing us in the right direction to delve deeper into this discussion. But the snippets here can't really transform a person's deep seeded fears into towers of strength. That takes enormous personal work and growth. It also takes either tremendous self-perspective, or the help of a counselor or therapist trained in recognizing the roots to these insecurities. Otherwise you will just end up claiming a weakness is now a strength but still needing the approval of others.
Also, not all weaknesses are strengths. Dishonesty, depression, violent aggression, pederasty, and sociopathy are not afflictions that can make you happier, more creative, or a better artist. The author isn't claiming that they are, but he also isn't giving the reader a good strategy on how to differentiate what is a quirky trait that may be misunderstood or what is actually a destructive pathology.
Let's look at three of Rendall's suggestions. starting with:
Number 4. FORGET IT: DON'T TRY TO FIX YOUR WEAKNESSES
This is a very attractive idea. Just accept who you are, warts and all, and hey while we're at it, who says that warts aren't beautiful?
He makes four arguments for letting things be.
1 and 2. It is slow, difficult, and painful to make progress on our weaknesses.
One and two seemed so similar that I combined them. He's right. Change will not come easily or quickly. But that's why it's crucial to know what you're trying to fix. Are you trying to stop biting your nails, or are you trying to stop maxing out your credit cards and ruining your credit? You can take your time on one, but you better get a grip on the other.
3. It distracts us from more important things.
I don't know. This is a rehash of my response to the first two. It's all well and good to let something slide if you are doing some really good work somewhere else. But you have to know what your fighting in order to prioritize it. If you are a brilliant composer you can probably get away with being abrasive. We forgive that in geniuses. If you write really good Harry Potter fanfiction but you can't have a conversation with someone without saying something sexually inappropriate you need to work on that now.
4. It doesn't work, at least not well enough to become a valuable strength.
This seems to contradict what he's talking about the whole time. He did define weakness and strength in terms of this essay, but I just completely disagree. You can turn a shortcoming into a strength because struggle can temper us in ways that easy mastery of something cannot. For me, playing the guitar is easy, writing is hard. I can't type, I can't spell, I'm wordy, and I repeat the same thoughts over and over. On the other hand, I have long fingers, strong hands, good dexterity, good rhythm, and already could play percussion before I ever picked up a guitar. But I'm a much better writer than I ever will be a musician. It was spending years and years struggling to write a sentence that didn't collapse under its own weight that led to me being a good writer. Now I still have a million typos, but the content of what I put on the page is stronger than anything I can create musically.
Here Mr. Rendall and I must agree to disagree.
5. FOUNDATION: BUILD ON YOUR STRENGTHS
Rendall's contention here is that you can't take for granted what you are already good at and you need to continue to imporve in these areas.
I don't really disagree with that. I think we need to keep striving to get better at the things we love to do, even if they at first come easy. There will always be a challenge if you follow the path long enough.
His arguments are
1. that is feels good to be good at something, so do it often.
If you love to do something, or at the very least make you living at it, then you need to stay sharp. I know many people who are good at math, but would rather not use it in their careers. However, they need to make a living so they do. It would be easy to become complacent in that scenario and I would recommend that they continue to expand their knowledge.
2. What comes naturally will be the area you can excel the most.
I don't know about this one. I stated my belief that through struggle comes growth above.
3. Strengths make up for our weaknesses.
I also made an agreeing statement above when I compared Mozart's getting a fee pass for his Asberger's Syndrome to a creepy fan fiction author. It depends on how strong are you strengths and how bad are your weakness.
8. FREAK: THE POWER OF UNIQUENESS
Here Mr. Rendall compares a talented freak to the tower of Pisa. while it was never intended to lean, it now is the most famous structure in the city, and one of the most famous in the world.
But this is because it never fell over. It worked out. Leaning is fine if it doesn't lead to total collapse.
The idea that if something doesn't go as planned it can still be cool is a really good one. I hope that, of all the notions debated here, comes through to the reader more than any other. Especially for the young readers who struggle with self-identity and a need to be perfect more than old guys like me.
But you can't predict happy accidents. You just have to recognize them for what they are. That is a talent in and of itself, and if you already have it you probably don't need self-help manifestos. But maybe you do.
My Own strengths and Weaknesses:
I've actually discussed them quite a bit earlier, but I will go over it here. As a creative person I am very spontaneous, I have a good memory for what I see, hear, or read and can use that to reference in my creative work later, and I have a lot of creative experience as I have been involved in the arts my entire life.
But I'm not a professional, so despite all that experience there comes down to something lacking somewhere. My feeling is that while I am a talented person is many ways, I lack the fundamental ability to package my ideas and concepts in a manner others want to engage. I believe my work has merit, but my presentation is flawed. I did not, for example, get one item presented to the class this week in our student showcase. I felt terrible about that since that meant my team-mates didn't get the extra points as a result. We all worked really hard on our projects, and I feel like I let my teams and partners down. It was a group effort, but I had a leadership position in both large group projects, and I came up short. (My partner Beth did get her song selected. I'm very happy about that). I'm not worried about the extra points (I definitely care about grades, but 25 points would not be enough to make a huge difference in my course GPA), but I do feel very sorry for my colleagues, particularly in the Game Design project since I was the only digital media student in our group and they really were counting on me.
I have to learn from this and move on. I don't have another twenty years to figure out how to get people interested in my art, whatever it is. I came here to learn how to make it happen. This class has been a learning experience. And it has been painful.
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