Musings

My good friend Heiner has introduced me to the excellent Instapaper concept. The idea is simple: surf the net as usual and when you find something you don't have time to read at that moment, click a bookmarklet they supply and the article is silently added to your Instapaper profile. A side-effect of offering this functionality is that Instapaper can perform statistical analysis on click counts for each URL, working out which are the most popular articles amongst the reading community.

Here's one I've enjoyed. It charts the "discovery" of that difficult period between adolescence and adulthood. I think I'm there right now. Lots of possibilities, not much stability, tons of energy, not much money. Watch this space as I develop my business and do some interesting things in the process. There is time for "setting down" later on. First time I've encountered the idea of synaptic pruning, too. I wonder which bits of my cognition have been lopped off so that other bits can be optimised? What about you? I refuse to feel guilty about enjoying this time in my life. There's a quote at the end from Jeffrey Arnett at the end and some opinion from the article writer, Robin Marantz Henig, which holds some promise for us all:

“To be a young American today is to experience both excitement and uncertainty, wide-open possibility and confusion, new freedoms and new fears,” he writes in “Emerging Adulthood.” During the timeout they are granted from nonstop, often tedious and dispiriting responsibilities, “emerging adults develop skills for daily living, gain a better understanding of who they are and what they want from life and begin to build a foundation for their adult lives.” If it really works that way, if this longer road to adulthood really leads to more insight and better choices, then Arnett’s vision of an insightful, sensitive, thoughtful, content, well-honed, self-actualizing crop of grown-ups would indeed be something worth waiting for.

Taken without permission, but with good faith, from Portrait of an ENFP

Portrait of an ENFP - Extraverted iNtuitive Feeling Perceiving

(Extraverted Intuition with Introverted Feeling)

The Inspirer

As an ENFP, your primary mode of living is focused externally, where you take things in primarily via your intuition. Your secondary mode is internal, where you deal with things according to how you feel about them, or how they fit in with your personal value system.

ENFPs are warm, enthusiastic people, typically very bright and full of potential. They live in the world of possibilities, and can become very passionate and excited about things. Their enthusiasm lends them the ability to inspire and motivate others, more so than we see in other types. They can talk their way in or out of anything. They love life, seeing it as a special gift, and strive to make the most out of it.

More after the jump. Read More

Just read (and was touched by) this, a few words in someone's sig:

"Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.

Plato"

That's so easy to forget. Why do we expect everyone (including ourselves) to be more than human? As Rob Bell says, we were designed to be neither angels or animals, but this odd, hybrid, blessed creature, reborn in the love of Jesus.