(i think i missed this one the first time around? or maybe i'm just re-commenting! WHATEVER I LOVE COMMENTING lol)
ha! this was actually an earlier character—i don't have his files on-hand atm, but i think i was exploring some black-sheep-of-family dynamics in his backstory? the depressed STEM grad student you remember came later, though he was on the same game :P (those email sessions were great!!! ahh!!!!)
the facets-of-a-diamond metaphor seems very apt. i guess i'd argue it's something like: the observer perspective lets you get a glimpse, abstractly, at how this person behaves around a variety of other people (lots of facets)—but you won't have the full story of the histories of each of those persons, so you're going to miss a lot of subtleties of those interactions, and such.
whereas, when you're doing the actively-engaged perspective: well, i have the complete history of my own life, and the complete history of all my interactions with humans ever, so i can come to that encounter with all that knowledge ("person reacting to me in particular like X usually means Y"), and pattern-match against the bajillion other times i've met a human, and assess the person pretty quickly. it's still going to be just one facet/mask vs getting to see potentially many—but you'll probably see that one facet in much greater detail, and (with some noted exceptions!) i honestly feel like most people don't go out of their way to hide significant parts of themselves—even people i've interacted with in mostly a professional context, i can often get a whiff of what their home life is like or whatever.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2018-12-21 02:00 am (UTC)ha! this was actually an earlier character—i don't have his files on-hand atm, but i think i was exploring some black-sheep-of-family dynamics in his backstory? the depressed STEM grad student you remember came later, though he was on the same game :P (those email sessions were great!!! ahh!!!!)
the facets-of-a-diamond metaphor seems very apt. i guess i'd argue it's something like: the observer perspective lets you get a glimpse, abstractly, at how this person behaves around a variety of other people (lots of facets)—but you won't have the full story of the histories of each of those persons, so you're going to miss a lot of subtleties of those interactions, and such.
whereas, when you're doing the actively-engaged perspective: well, i have the complete history of my own life, and the complete history of all my interactions with humans ever, so i can come to that encounter with all that knowledge ("person reacting to me in particular like X usually means Y"), and pattern-match against the bajillion other times i've met a human, and assess the person pretty quickly. it's still going to be just one facet/mask vs getting to see potentially many—but you'll probably see that one facet in much greater detail, and (with some noted exceptions!) i honestly feel like most people don't go out of their way to hide significant parts of themselves—even people i've interacted with in mostly a professional context, i can often get a whiff of what their home life is like or whatever.