A MegaMan By Any Other Name Would Blast Just As Accurate

If I were to purchase a turtle today I would certainly name him Curtis. I think the name is fitting for a meek and lovable animal such as a turtle. When you look into a turtles eyes, with the somewhat reticent and blank stare gazing back at you, for some reason it is hard not come up with a name like Curtis. Were Curtis to show a little personality, namely in the form of a brisk (relative to other turtles) walk across a table, I might even give him the nickname "Curt", although I would prefer to spell it with a "K" instead of a "C".

This talk of turtles gives rise to a slightly mind-bending question that has made appearances in my consciousness over the past few months. During these brief and fleeting moments I have wondered one question: does a person's name influence their personality? For instance, do people with unique names have unique personalities? If this is the case, which I suspect it is, how is this possible?

One simple answer to this query would fall under the realms of Social Learning Theory. To be brief, this simple theory would suggest that one's personality would develop as a reflection of the social circumstances in which they live. In other words, the individual acts as a sponge, "soaking up" the numerous social cues, rules, and conventions so to speak.

This theory, if one takes it to be correct, might answer our question in two ways. First, a child born with a unique name - let's call him "MegaMan", or perhaps "Fuschia" for a female name - is clearly more likely to have unique parents since they are the ones who choose the name. With regard to Social Learning Theory then, MegaMan or Fuschia would, in effect, be more likely to continue this familial trend of uniqueness (which some may simply call non-linear thinking) since the bulk of his/her social learning predisposition would be focused towards his/her parents. To sum, unique parents = unique kids.

A second reason Social Learnng Theory might help to explain whether one's name affects his/her personality is due to the notion of a Self-Fulfilling prophecy. Essentially, this sub-theory can be broken down into the short aphorism: if you believe a person to be unique, you will likely treat them in an according fashion. A self-fulfilling prophecy, in my own words, is the unconscious reinforcement of our perceptions of another person i.e. if your name is MegaMan I sure as hell will not treat you the same as if your name was William (although I wish I would).
So far I have attempted to uncover why an individual's personality development may be subject to an external factor. An individual's name, be it John, Mary, Moses, Phillip or Buford, may make a difference. I have attempted to show, on a very shallow level mind you, how a single word can resonate throughout your social web and serve to influence your entire being.

I know there is more, I just haven't thought of it yet.

Yours in thought,

Jared.Concepts.Inc.

With Rights Comes Responsibilities

Note From Glen:
Greetings All, Morgen contributed this thoughtful concept, however it is very lengthy. Therefore, to keep things tidy on the main page, the first bit will be here and the last bit can be found in the Comments section. It worked last time, so this will be standard practice on wordy concepts.
Yours In Thought,
Glen


Once there was a bird, several in fact. Some call them fowl. They called each other ‘Caw’, and ‘Craowe’ and ‘Chirp Chirp’. The fowl had friends who couldn’t fly, and as a result, these herds, schools, flocks and colonies of creatures all kept to their own environment, staying out of the sky. For the most part, the birds stayed out of the water, the fields, and hills. Each creature respected the others, only impinging on others when they were really hungry or hurt. But there was one group, and they travelled in packs and gangs. Word is that these creatures once swung from trees. Eventually they left the trees, and just started swinging. Soon after, there was a whole bunch of them.
They grew from packs and gangs into groupings and assortments. They naturally started taking up more room than they had before, now needing more space than ever. Their footprint1 was larger than their individual bipeds. And wherever they settled down, well the weight of their presence was felt for miles around. All the other creatures were puzzled and alarmed by this unsustainable development. Herds flocked from the colonies to the schools where inquiries into the crisis were being held. No one knew what to do, nor how to manage the impending catastrophe (whenever it would arrive, however long it would take to play out).
In a very short time the assorted groupings of bipedal gangs had begun packing things away, taking goods from one place and storing them in another. They became more organized, flocking to colonies in herds, travelling over deep waters, through foreigners fields and over holy hills. They were adventurers! Conquerors! And the ability to move, spread, and enslave was their right! Sometimes their groups divided into bunches, and they enslaved each other. But most often they made truces, and collectively agreed to just enslave and exploit the earth and its other creatures.
That was the story of a bird, several in fact. From their fowled perspective we learn how the abilities of one gang of creatures developed, eventually being understood as more than an ability. Their ability had become viewed as a right. Most rights, unlike abilities, are to be asserted at every moment, and in every situation. And so the characters in our story went about foolishly plying their abilities (which they mistook as rights) at every possible chance--instead of--discerning when and where they should display their capabilities.

[Continued in Comments...]

Morgen.Concepts.Inc.

Funner

‘Funner’ should be a word. How else are we supposed to distinguish the difference between something that is fun and something that is more fun. I guess you could just say that..."more fun", but where is the fun in that. Great gets an ‘er’. Something can be great, and another thing can be greater…or bigger, smaller, faster, taller, weaker, stronger, shorter, longer……. I could go on.
I am an advocate for the word ‘funner’. I ask you to ponder your feelings, and perhaps join me in this crusade and incorporate this word into your life.
If life continues on current path, Future Scott will be a teacher. I will teach this word to my students and accept it in essays and such. If you don’t support ‘funner’ and/or you think abusing my role as a teacher by teaching whatever I want which sometimes will include teaching false things is wrong, and don’t want your Future kids to be taught by Future Scott, that is okay, I’m not hurt. Put them with the other teacher, but my class will be funner.

Scott.Concepts.Inc.

Planning

* Only read this article if you planned ahead to read this article.
** If this article comes as a surprise, stop reading immediately.


Far too often the public is engaged with surprises. It is seen everyday through; surprise birthday parties, accidents and quotes like “That’s surprising”, “I didn’t think it was going to turn out like that”, “Wow…”, and “I would have never guessed”. These people are naive in thinking that a surprise is uncontrollable.
I myself have devised a method for eliminating words like surprise, chance, random, and spur of the moment thinking. The number one objective in eliminating surprise is planning. For example if I am sitting on my bed and someone has left the room and forgotten to close the door, I am not fazed because I planned to wear heavier than average clothes that day. This was in order to throw my clothes at the door, resulting in a door closing action. I extensively plan in order to do the least amount of work necessary every second of my life. Do not get this confused with laziness, its counter partner. Planning is tough on its own but with some practice you are able to plan on top of planning. Currently I have planned every second of my life 32 years in to my future. When I am 63 I will have planned my entire life and all the hard work of planning will have paid off. I will be able to do nothing all the time and never have to think again. Some may say this is impossible and approach me on purpose just to say “I bet you didn’t see that coming.” I simply reply, “I have a scheduled this appointment with you and therefore I have not wasted my time but you are wasting your time not planning.”



[I bet Evan didn't plan to see a picture of his brother and himself dressed as Ronald McDonald. -Glen.]

A process to plan is linking and or multitasking in order to get enough time to plan. When I was in grade 4, I wrote every assignment that I would ever need up to university along with this article itself. A good planned day is a lot like seeing into the future. A good planner is not just organized. Calling yourself a planner just because you remembered all your books for all your classes in one day is not a representation of a good planner. If you planned all the traffic patterns of your area before you left so that you never waited for cars to pass, if you planned the geographic area to always walk in a downhill direction, and if you planned to go to the doctor to fix a broken arm then had 5 other bones broken, then fixed just to save traveling time for when you break your next 5 bones, that would be good planning. Remember the benefit of planning is doing overall less physical work, but the extensive planning you need to do is substantially more work. While proceeding with this method of planning I advise caution.

Evan.L.Concepts.Inc.