The Retrospective Introspection Challenge

In this day and age, it is common to see various character traits dovetailing together, giving entire swathes of people tendencies that run in tandem with others, as if they came paired by default.

Consider the following statements wisely, and see if you can spot any individuals that fit into these generalised, yet very insightfully nuanced, categorisations and their opposites:

Arrogant & Competent ßà Modest & Incompetent

Unpunctual & Creative ßà Punctual & Unimaginative

Impolite & Successful ßà Polite & Unsuccessful

Ugly & Intelligent ßà Beautiful & Stupid

Lazy & Talented ßà Hardworking & Untalented

Objective & Pragmatic ßà Relative & Emotional

Arrogance and competence; vert often seen together, just ask Cristiano Ronaldo or many other high-profile people that get things done, but alas, seem to want to make sure everyone knows about it.

Punctuality and creativity are famously linked. Every famous painter, sculptor, author or artist (and pretty much everything in between) have always seen time as a bit of a very flexible guideline, and never the guide.

Impoliteness and success are often seen together. High-powered worlds of Finance, Business, Sport, Media; can all provide many examples of individuals who were very successful in their chosen field, but treated others around them with disdain and contempt. Most, if not all, large companies and multinational corporations are run by successful businessmen who are very impolite and inconsiderate of their peers. This has been evidenced by many posthumous autobiographies, biographies and historical accounts. 

Without going overboard on the names, I’ll name a few: Walt Disney empire, Steve Jobs, Ford, but the list could go on.

Beauty and brainsin one package are famously rare. Physical attractiveness and mental capacity are seemingly inversely correlated, with exceptions in rare cases. This one is one is easy to see and visible on any street corner, and down every country lane.

Much like creativity and punctuality being common allies, so too are laziness and talent. Talented individuals from all walks of life, are often seen to be lazy and slow to get going. This has nothing to do with actual reality, but is merely a perception of time. Talent in conjunction with a willingness to work hard are rare, and when seen together can lead to success, and consequently, a tendency to become impolite.

Last, but certainly not least, we come to objectivity and pragmatism. Objective thought and pragmatism come hand-in-hand.

Individuals with a propensity for objective thought immediately discover an ability to be pragmatic in all their activities. On the flip side, the opposite side of this is Relativity and Emotions. The individuals who are inclined to think relatively, and consider what is 'right' and 'wrong' on the basis of their arbitrary emotionally-driven preferences — instead of objective and pragmatic thought — are predisposed to behave in such a fashion in all aspects of life.

This tendency can be seen very often, and is usually bundled with statements such as — “That’s your truth, and I’m allowed mine”, or, “That seems right, but I choose not to see it like that”, and my personal favourite, “It’s my right to decide what the truth of this matter is, according to my feelings and what makes me feel good”.

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