Image

The puzzle of image remains unsolved for me.

For years I have revelled in my individuality and displayed it openly.

As a scientist being strange was irrelevant. It was the skill for the work that everyone cared about and looked for.

But in big business there is this idea of a 'professional image'. People judge you based off appearances. How do you dress? How do you speak? Do you act in a way which they consider normal and 'proper'?

These attributes have no causative correlation with ability to do the job. And so judging me on them is not fair. It is, in fact, WRONG.

But I cannot control other people. I can only control me.

And I already decided to sacrifice image to get this job. I lost the blue hair, and I donned a suit so that a 'normal' firm would accept me as one of their own. And recently my boss had a chat to me about my "personal Internet brand".

I may need to start removing linkages between MoazaicIris and my real name. I don't want to... it goes against my beliefs about self expression. And I already set up a personal internet brand I'm rather proud of... I quite liked being the dark lord of CosSoc.

But it would be hypocritical of me to get all high and mighty about my Internet presence after I altered my real-world appearance for this job already. I may have to play the game.

Balance is the key. I must find ways to express myself that doesn't impinge on my career, or else my big business career may not be quite as long term as I planned. Many CosPlayers have separate identities for their hobby and I always laughed... but I need money, I need my career to progress, and since I can't control the opinions of others that means I must present myself as the kind of person they think is competent.

Be embodied

As a child, I felt disembodied.

My entire existence revolved around the power of my mind, and my fat and unhealthy body was merely a poorly designed avatar with which I interacted with the world.

But your body is important. Even if your existence revolves around the mind, you still need your body. It nourishes your intellect and protects it from harm.

So look after your body, and learn how to use it. Connect up neurons to all of the nerves that control movement, and learn how to coordinate them in complex patterns. And connect all of them - don't rely on your primary hand, someday you may need both at once or even just injure your primary hand. When you learn something on one side, immediately swap and learn it on the other.

Learn to pat your head and rub your tummy at the same time, and you'll get things done in half the time it takes others.

That skill was useful to me as a scientist (aliquoting liquids into fiddly little eppendorf tubes) and as a waiter (washing two glasses at once).

Learn to run and climb and fight, because you never know when that precious intellect of yours might be in danger.

And never, EVER let yourself believe that you can't have a healthy body because you are intelligent, geeky or academically minded.

TV has lied to you. The inverse correlation between physical strength and intelligence is not causative, and only a fool would doom himself to ill health in order to comply with a stereotype.