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Stereotype-Fu: A sense of humor

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Continuing my series on Stereotype-fu, let's take a look at another way to deal with stereotypes in the job and career.

I should note that I'm talking about the more innocent (or stupid) ones – not the nasty, negative stereotypes that we all know a bit to well – those that judge people by ethnicity, or gender, region of borth etc.  Those are areas outside the scope of what I'm discussing.

So when you're afraid you're being affected by stereotypes in your workplace, on an interview, etc. another tool is a sense of humor.

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DON’T Go Farther: MMOs

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So I recently speculated on what MMO's could be made out of existing properties – we're pro geeks after all, we want to speculate – and do – the next big thing.  But it helps at times to know what to do.

So I now want to speculate on media properties that SHOULD NOT have MMOs – some of which have been inspired by conversations.  Think of it as fair warning – and food for thought.

BLEACH: Bleach comes down to, as a friend put it, Punching Ghosts.  The series doesn't have much to work on beyond that premise, and I think its time has come and gone.  Do a Naruto MMO instead.

TORCHWOOD (OR FRINGE, OR WAREHOUSE 13 . . .): These paranormal-investigation series either suffer from mutable continuity or VERY tight continuity with little room for players.  Their settings usually mix low-level and world-threatening stuff that don't play well with getting a sense of the world unless done right.  It's actually hard to do one of these as an MMO without a continuity specifically deisgned for them.

DISCWORLD: You just couldn't.  Discworld is about the author's humor and observations and you don't get that in an MMO.

FULL METAL ALCHEMIST: FMA, mixing magic and science and a world with at least some definitions sounds ideal.  The problem?  Everyone would want to play an Alchemist (who wants to be Regular Guy?), leading you to violate the worldsetting insanely.

Anything you don't want to see be an MMO (and may fear it will be?).

– Steven Savage

Cynicism Is Not a Strategy

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It's easy to be cynical – as I'm quite aware.  The economy is tough.  Industries are changing.  Society is altering.  There will probably be another "Transformers" movie.

It's easy to be cynical all the time.  It's fashionable, cool, and makes you look all deep and mature.

Cynicism also doesn't solve a damn thing.  You can be as worried as you want about the career economy, you can be fashionably cynical or really cynical, but here's the basic painful truth:

Cynicism is NOT a strategy.

Being cynical won't solve a problem.  It doesn't make things work better. It doesn't do anything.  At best it can be a shield or an indicator of problems – and that's it.  An alarm doesn't put out the fire, a shield doesn't defeat an enemy.

So ask yourself this – is cynicism something you treat as a strategy?  Is it so core to your identity, actions (or just sheer posing) that it's something you treat as vital, as part of your identity as something that is somehow going to yield results?

It's not.

Strategy is about planning, organizing, measuring, and achieving.  Being cynical doesn't do any of these things.

In fact the longer you remain cynical, the less you get done, and the more cynical you become.  Not a recipe for success.

– Steven Savage