Are You a Non-Conformist?
…The moment you act “crazy” might also be the moment you find your way.
- Rasika Welankiwar, Harvard Business Review
What a great line.
In a blog post for Harvard Business Review, associate editor Rasika Welankiwar writes about the value of charting your own course, rather than turning to The Experts (or Google) for advice. She references a fascinating article about conformity from the British site PsyBlog, in which researcher Jeremy Dean lists the top 10 factors that influence conformity, from mood to our innate human desire to reciprocate. Welankiwar distills the following key lines from Dean’s post: While, on the one hand, “conformity is not in itself a good or a bad thing,” “nonconformity and self-confidence go hand-in-hand.”
Do you consider yourself a non-conformist?
Judging People by Their Books
We all know not to judge a book by its cover – but what about judging a person based on the book they’re reading?
Over at CoverSpy, “a team of publishing nerds hit the subways, streets, parks & bars to find out what New Yorkers are reading now.” Admirably, the authors refrain from judgment, offering instead only the briefest observational detail; about the man reading What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, we know only that he is 30 (their guess), has a dark mustache, and is wearing Reeboks (more…)

