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What makes you unique?


Reilly

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Because I saw this one and thought for a bit and couldn't think of anything good and then I just thought, "why do people care so much?"

 

Well, do we care so much?

 

I think it's a really tough question to answer, because having to look at your personality from an existential point of view isn't easy- and it's a lot easier to ask "Who cares?".

 

It's like that question "What do you think about when you aren't doing anything that requires constant thought?" like driving a car, making food, anything that you have to wait for.

 

But personally for me that last question is ridiculous and even more impossible to answer.

 

When I made this topic I realised that some people would see it as a real douchey question to ask like "OK what the fuck do you have to offer to humanity?" but I don't mean it like that, it's inspiration is a few people I've known (Coincidentally who are douches) who think of themselves as complicated personalities. Well, everyone is a complicated personality, is there anything about you that sticks out as unique?

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Well, not one particular aspect, no, because every aspect of me can be found in copious quantities elsewhere in humanity, somewhere; it's more of the combinations and recombinations of each trait that make us "unique." It's so complicated that most people consider it to be totally intangible, un-understandable, etc. I'm legitimately curious as to why we feel the need to make ourselves feel so unique though, because whether I'm "unique" or not doesn't really affect me. You know?

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Yes I do understand, which is why it's so difficult to answer.

 

But that's where I go back to existentialism, surely there's been people in your life who stand out for a particular reason, they are different for one reason or another. And further, if you get to know someone well enough, they will stand out for reasons that you weren't aware of, and that's why every person is unique in many ways, and all of them they didn't even realise.

 

Even if it is an impossible question to truely answer, I thought it would provide some interesting discussion. I don't understand why it should be instantly dismissed.

 

PS: "copious quantities" could have been "a lot of ways". Show off.

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Oh I dismissed your actual question, mah bah.

 

I'm legitimately curious as to why we feel the need to make ourselves feel so unique though

 

I don't think most people do, but it doesn't matter if you want to be unique or not, whatever you like makes you unique. Of course there's always going to be people who are pretentious and search for things that will make them different, but for the most part, people are unique without ever trying to be.

 

because whether I'm "unique" or not doesn't really affect me. You know?

 

Yes and I did take that into account before, it doesn't affect you as you are, but like I referred to before, we all see people and how they are unique in different ways, but we never look at ourselves in that same way.

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I'm a collection of classic stock traits put together in a thoroughly odd way. So I guess the oddness makes me unique?

 

Well, there is the age thing. My boss just told me that he thought I was eighteen until I told him I was nearly 30. Which means I have been posing as an 18-year-old for the last 16 years of my life, since people started asking me when I was graduating from highschool (they meant that year) when I was 11. :wtf: I guess being too young for my age is nice after being too old for it for so long.

 

...On an entirely different note that also has to do with identity so I guess here is as good as anywhere... Reilly- just thought I'd give you a heads up that I'm naming a character after you in a story (possibly comic/graphic novel) that I'm writing (drawing?). I finally figured out who he is, and Reilly is the only name that seems to fit... and your online personality is one of the four he's absorbed a bit of, so...

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Good question! When I think about it, it's actually kind of difficult to come up with an answer...:thinking:

 

I guess I am unique because no one looks like me...haha that's kind of a lame answer.

And also maybe the combination of interests that I have? I mean, a lot of people have similar interests but once you put all your interests together, maybe everyone has a different combination?

 

I don't know...it's too hot to think.

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I'm hoping that we'll all go away and think about this and come up with some extremely great answers tomorrow :awesome:

 

But I won't have one of them, because I've thought long and hard about this and have nothing to offer.

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I'm hoping that we'll all go away and think about this and come up with some extremely great answers tomorrow :awesome:

 

But I won't have one of them, because I've thought long and hard about this and have nothing to offer.

I wonder if some of the problem is the words themselves?

 

Words are not objects or ideas, they're sounds that categorize and label those objects or ideas. You definitely have something that makes you unique even in messageboard form, but as soon as I try to think of a word that describes it, I can't. Because using the words for it sets up a category, which instantly makes the idea of the thing not unique any more since it's a big enough idea to fill an entire category. It's all the little nuances that make a personality different from the category that add up to uniqueness.

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Is being unique more a product of the individual than the group? Individual inspiration may occur simultaneously anywhere on earth, but often ideas and individual attributes are a product of a combination of cultural forces, some strictly from the individual, some arising from group interaction, but manifested in each individual uniquely.

What makes me unique? Many things too numerous to mention. A better question might be to ponder the value of uniqueness, the value of commonality and cooperation, and the balance of each in our lives.

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Yeah, but Albert Einstein just saw the world a certain way -- common enough for people to see the world differently from normal -- and had the discipline to think about the same issues for years -- and discipline like that isn't strictly uncommon either. So I maintain that his "uniqueness" was just a very potent blend of slightly less common common attributes. He was just a man, after all. Just far more insightful than most people are. The same goes for probably every genius ever, I think.

 

Just my two cents though.

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Just a plain Jane genius I guess, eh?:laugh3: Oh well, he was stuck on particles and hated probability, so maybe you're right. On not. He was uniquely obsessive in his drive to discover underlying truths and uniquely insightful in his thought experiments - he did think unlike most other human beings at that time. Still, he never liked probability, yet perhaps he was right - what we see as randomness may in reality be something else.

But to be truly unique may mean being lost to obscurity, unless expressed in some form of art. And none of us are completely removed from the cultures, circles, or societies in which we interact, so being truly unique may be limited as you suggest.

Perhaps today the hardest thing is to remain unique!:laugh3:

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I think it's a fine thread. Of course, the term 'unique' more accurately refers to 'one-of-a-kind' which is a tall order to fill since I could you give you a thousand of my attributes and there'd still be tens of thousands of people in the world who match up.

Another interpretation would be to ask: how has your existence made a dent in the world that couldn't have occurred without you? The easiest way to distinguish or (if you feel this is important) justify one's existence is to create something that's not just unique, but also of value. (having children is an act of creation, but it would be absurd, circular and primitive to call mere reproduction an act of value because the value of that creation corresponds with the good that comes about from those children, and so on.) Everybody exists, but only an artist brings a particular song or painting into existence. Obviously this corresponds with medicine, business, sports, etc. as well. Standing out by doing something that no one else has done.

 

By extension, the creator is unique because only they created or brought about that particular thing of value. If you wanna wax existential, you could say you are nothing more than the sum of those individuating actions, or that you are nothing until you do something meaningful of your own volition.

 

Now that I've filled this thread with a bunch of pretentious cliche BS, I can't say that am unique by virtue of anything I've done. I've recorded music and written papers n' shit, but none of it has been anything of real interest, and I sometimes feel that I listen to music and read books avidly so that I can deliver myself from the responsibility of feeling that I have something of substance to contribute, but more often I just get insecure in the long run, and go on expressing myself through other people's work.

At the same time though, I feel I have a lot of potential that just hasn't found the right medium to work in. I stand out from my peers in that I don't find resolve in religion or solidarity, but am both attracted to and repelled by the isolation and unease that I go through in college. I embrace it because I know I'm living somewhat authenticly. That doesn't make me unique or anything obviously. Best most people can do is list skills and interests. I like philosophy, I'm pretty good at english and history, I play music all the time, I particularly like ambient post-rock, I'm quiet and have an accent that people are always asking about.

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