Two separate encounters today lead Jaq to ask some questions about mental compartmentalization. Jaq doesn’t really have any answers to these questions, but they’re likely worth asking.
One encounter was with an online entity who mixes video reports on market conditions from an Austrian perspective freely with the latest piece of non-news about somebody named Versailles Hyatt or something. For someone trying to virally market their own videos, it is a highly odd mix, one that could be compartmentalized into separate spheres.
The other encounter was with a friend who recently had the opportunity to meet and work with the guy who’s considered the world’s foremost pioneer and innovator of HDTV production. The guy, who’s name is David Niles, is 58 years old, and according to Jaq’s friend and his conversation with him, he’s not had a vacation since before Woodstock.
Oh, he gets around. He just takes a camera everywhere he goes and never stops working. Undercompartmentalized? Crazy? He seems to make it work.
Jaq wonders about the reverse. Everybody wears a different face to show different people. You’re wouldn’t be the same person in a corporate meeting as you would be working at Arby’s. The friends you watch football, or Dancing with Americans Idle, or whatever do not see the same person as you are when spending quality time with your soulmate. That is all well and normal and okay, for external compartmentalization. What about internal compartmentalization? Are you different people inside when doing each of these activities? Are mild schizophrenia, multiple personalities, and other situational “ailments” a lot more common than anyone ever thought, being perfectly normal human conditions? Healthy conditions, even?
David Niles must compartmentalize his life. During the weekend that my friend worked with this guy, he was frequently called away to help deal with the horrors and pain and bureaucratic indignity related to the recent death of his granddaughter. Doubtless, his mind was not focused on the isses of HDTV production. However, even whipsawing back and forth he was full of energy, passion, and zeal while on the job. My friend was astonished and impressed with his extreme focus on his work to the point where this friend of Jaq’s may have found his new personal hero.
Could it be that the key to success in life is overwhelming undercompartmentalization of pieces of life? Focus to the point that your focus overwhelms all other possible fields of human endeavor? Is internal overcompartmentalization actually bad for you — were humans designed for little more than subsistence work and procreation after all?
Or does it mean that ultimate success in life isn’t worth the price you pay in mental health?
Jaq has no clues to any of these, but perhaps more thoughts will be forthcoming in later blogentries.
