#not that im an expert i just really like this version it connects w/ me

[localwarlockunion]

( x )

[actualbird]

yo you totally made me think about low empathy michael and it like totally makes sense and i think about it a lot when i listen to two player game bc ye like he OBVIOUSLY cares a lot about jeremy and he loves him and like jeremy's stating his problem and michael keeps saying the same solution cause like "that's the answer bro, don't be down" bc he cant wrap his head around the emotions and connect w them that well so in his mind he's just saying this completely fool proof solution i love this hc

yo i got this ask while balls deep in three books of discourse analysis i could only understand by like 10% but because of that was in the mood to just. keep thinking my brain in circles.

so heres a stupidly long answer cataloging canon instances of michael being low empathy af/exhibiting other traits related to this. along with like, characterization to extrapolate from that (at least by my own personal interpretation. obligatory disclaimer that how i see characters is not law, this is just My Take). 

but before that, im gonna define some terms outright so we’re all on the same page. empathy is a person’s capability to understand and feel what others are feeling. basically how well you can put yourself in somebody else’s shoes. this shouldnt be confused with sympathy, which is feeling compassion, pity, sorrow etc. for another. empathy is recognition/replication while sympathy is more on the caring about it. here i focus on empathy and the lack of it. 

im not an expert on Anything but speaking from experience as somebody who has very low empathy, this causes some complications. when you dont feel what others are feeling, sometimes you dont notice other people’s feelings at all. this results in stuff like bluntness, trouble reading social cues, insensitivity, etc. all things that 1) may happen unintentionally, 2) can be worked through via healthy communication, 3) are not inherently bad, just a result of how one reacts to external emotions and 4) things i totally think michael exhibits because hes a low empathy goblin i love with my whole heart. 

let’s get right into it. in more than survive, right after jeremy and michael discover their boyf riend backpacks, this exchange occurs

this seems pretty normal at first glance but it is the first instance of what seems to be michael’s go-to pattern for when he notices his best friend is feeling down, which, at least, kudos to michael, he very obviously noticed jeremy’s feelings. hurrah! so his process for how to fix this goes a little like “step 1: notice jeremy is upset. step 2: cheer jeremy up! step 3: unknowingly kinda mess up step 2“

jeremy is upset about the backpacks but then jeremy provides an out with something supposedly positive. michael latches on to it. it turns out to be negative. michael tries to salvage the situation by cheering jeremy up! by giving him a cool science fact! hell yeah! except it’s a shaky save at best because he does call the both of them losers but in an “it’s okay :D” way. 

all in all this is nothing really, just some friendly fast paced banter between best friends. whats important here is the 3 step pattern aforementioned because it 1) shows that michael Cares about his best friend and tries to make things better and 2) is BASICALLY the entirety of two player game

TWO PLAYER GAME is such a BOP and, at its core, is a song about how michael has got jeremy’s back and vice versa. but tpg is also textbook the 3 step pattern with added sprinkle of unintended invalidation. ive briefly spoken about tpg before so this might look a lil familiar but at its gist:

like you said anon, in tpg jeremy tells michael a problem he has, and throughout the course of the song, he continually makes it known that hes upset and has a lot of issues. step 1 has been achieved: michael knows jeremy is not doing too hot. time to do step 2: cheer him up!! and what better way to do that than to think positive with his trademark line “guys like us are cool in college” like, over and over again. because….it makes sense for michael. things might suck now, but just keep swimming yeah? it’ll be better later.

but it’s not better now and thats what jeremy actually needed validation on. michael thinks the solution is to look to the future but jeremy has his problems bothering him in the present. for all that michael says this is a two player game, he’s unintentionally dismissive because he doesnt understand that this isnt something that can be fixed with a simple “look forward to two years from now” mentality. neither of them are in the wrong, really. theyre just not on the same page.

onwards we go to something else entirely. the chili fries

this is a RIDICULOUSLY SMALL MOMENT but it stuck out to me because imo it is pretty obvious that jeremy says “leave me alone” because hes bummed and is being dramatic, but michael takes it literally and uses the opportunity to skedaddle and get his sweet sweet discontinued soda. im aware michael had to be gone for plot reasons and also the discontinued soda is foreshadowing for the mtn dew red, but taken at face value, this is something that happens a lot w/ low empathy: things are taken literally. 

jeremy is upset. jeremy said to give him some space. thats cool, i’ll go for a bit and come back with something neat that might cheer him up—hey, where’d he go?

and now let’s jump to something everybody and their dog knows about. michael in the bathroom. except not really. because mitb isnt what interests me so much as what happens before.

pre mitb is very, very interesting. before i say anything i’ll be clear in saying that literally nobody had even remotely a nice halloween night, it’s a disaster for everybody involved, but keep in mind that jeremy goes into the pre mitb scene immediately after the clusterfuck that is do you wanna hang and also getting chased down by a sloshed but aggressive jake. many people have said this before me but i’ll say it again: jeremy was not doing well. at all. 

and this is where michael fails step 1 of his pattern. he doesnt pick up on this at all. michael is kinda stuck in his own head right now. hes pissed. hes confused. hes betrayed. he cant understand other people’s feelings and now he has to deal with his own too. his head is a melting pot of AGH and he takes it out on jeremy. yeah, he tries to help jeremy, but he doesnt do it very well. it’s all very accusatory, and jeremy just had a terrible night, so jeremy lashes out.

teenagers are bad at emotions but theyre not bad people for it.  //cue mitb notes, we know the drill

to the play!!! 

recap for maximum contextualization: jeremy realizes the squip is bad fucking news and wants it gone. michael makes an entrance with the one thing that can kill it. and then this happens

AIGHT okay so the whole “i need an apology” scene is obviously played for comedy, and it does a good job at suddenly diffusing the end of the world stakes with some more down to earth teen friend drama but that aside, this scene is a good candidate to be listed under the definition of the phrase “bad timing” because michael, holy shit. BAD TIMING. like great timing for humor but bad timing as a human being. 

here we have jeremy clearly in possessed distress and michael has the antidote but he only wants to give it on a condition. it is absolutely a dick move. yeah, michael is is valid for wanting an apology, but not at this moment with the current stakes. this is michael thinking pretty selfishly. hes stuck in his own head and his own thoughts. he cares about jeremy and wants to help but…this apology important to him. it’s easy to get stuck on things like this when you cant empathize with others. the low empathy means that the only feelings you really get to really interact with are your own, so theres a tendency to focus on them. sometimes even at inopportune moments.

unintentional asshole-ery behold. in fact, this can be pushed even harder by this snippet in the score of be more chill that had some lines from an earlier draft. 

the fetus version of michael makes an entrance is hilariously low empathy, oh my god. this happens while jeremy is rolling around on the floor fighting an invisible-to-everybody-else squip and this is the first thing michael says. it’s positively dickish. 

SO with that done, a little bit can be extrapolated in terms of characterization. i think michael is low empathy so the dominos fall. michael is terrible at feelings. hes got a tendency to get stuck in his own head and not see what others are going through. his emotional periphery is abysmal, hes like a horse with those things that stop horses from looking to the side. in spite of all this, he still has a lot of love and good in his heart and he tries his best to show that in the ways that make sense to him. post-canon, the rift between his brain and jeremy’s brain can only be bridged by a big healthy heap of communication where michael learns that what makes sense to him isnt always what makes sense to other people. hes a good kid. he can do it. 

of course this is, again, all my take. the fun thing about transformative work and fandom is that all interpretations are valid and there will always be somebody out there who agrees. or disagrees. but on this blog, this is my michael. or at least one aspect of my michael. //shrug

ANYWAY im glad you like the hc anon!! ive obviously got a lot of feelings about it since i used your ask as an excuse to aimlessly ramble for, holy shit, 1.6 k words lmao. i hope you have a good day!!!

[uniformbravo]

hmm couldnt stop thinking abt wreck-it ralph 2 so here’s some Thoughts (things i didn’t like, things i would have changed. u know how it is)

obligatory disclaimer im not calling myself an Expert™ here im just letting off some steam ok don’t take this as a legitimate effort gnfkgn

ok so my initial thoughts after seeing this movie were that it was a complete mess, there’s a ton of clutter that doesn’t need to be there, too much random shit is introduced in the late game. but then i was like. well not totally?? regarding that last point at least; it felt like the virus was this random plot point they decided to pull in outta nowhere just to create a big dramatic climax, but the concept actually was introduced at the beginning of the movie? when ralph & vanellope are hanging out in the tron game & it glitches & they’re like well shit. this is what ralph specifically calls back to when he gets the idea to use a virus on the slaughter race game later on, so it’s not like the movie pulled this out of thin air, it did kind of lay the groundwork beforehand. kind of. except that even then it still doesn’t really feel like it

like, it’s honestly a pretty weak connection? this virus that ralph uses is kind of a Big Deal because it directly leads to his & vanellope’s fight and then the literal climax of the movie, they have to fight this thing to save the Entire Internet, but the point where the concept is introduced during the tron scene feels so easily dismissed in comparison. Like, it doesn’t feel dangerous in any way, it’s just kind of like “aw shucks, looks like we can’t play in tron anymore, oh well” and that tonal dissonance makes for a super weak setup. i mean, fuck, ralph literally had to have dialogue reminding you that it even happened just so he could connect it to this new plot point, which is pretty fuckin bad tbh!

there’s also the fact that it wasn’t even a virus in the tron game in the first place. it was literally just a glitch, and the connection between that and this virus was “well that glitch made the game not fun so vanellope didn’t want to play it anymore, so maybe i can use a virus to get the same effect in slaughter race!” which. doesn’t even technically make it a real callback, it literally is just introducing a new element in the late game, therefore making it feel v abrupt and out of place in the story.

i think it could have been integrated better if the tron thing and the virus were actually the same thing? and there could have been more importance placed on the tron scene, like instead of just making it this throwaway little “ralph & vanellope are friends!” scene it coulda been like “oh shit watch out for viruses, they are dangerous and will fuck up your game!” which would have made ralph’s conscious decision to use one later way more impactful, since the audience would have had that association from before

now. speaking of ralph using the virus. we come to my biggest issue w/ the movie,,

i... hate how they handled the conflict between ralph & vanellope’s arcs lol. i mean, it starts with a genuinely interesting concept: ralph and vanellope are best friends. vanellope feels trapped by how small and limiting the world of her game is, she’s itching for something new and exciting to break up the monotony; she needs change. ralph is happy with the way things are to the point that he fears change and will actively work against it; he has become overbearing and clingy and needs to learn to give his friend space. this isn’t a bad premise at all, but the way it’s handled is so. oof

so, they go into the internet, right, and vanellope finds this game, slaughter race, that is the epitome of everything she loves and has been yearning for; violence, cool cars, like-minded people. she starts to hang out with the characters there, and ralph sees this as a threat to his friendship with vanellope, so he decides to infect the game with a virus to make it boring and hopefully make vanellope lose interest. again, not bad ideas for an interesting narrative! where it falls apart is in the execution

first of all, this is obviously toxic ass behavior. like, just a really shitty thing to do. vanellope found something that makes her happy, and ralph wants to drag her away from it just so she’ll spend more time with him, and not make any other friends besides him. it’s garbage behavior. this would be completely fine if the movie didn’t treat ralph like?? a victim??? rather than a person who made a shitty decision????

like okay yes they do make it clear that this was Not The Right Thing To Do, but the whole time there’s this attitude of like.... i think they’re trying really hard to push ralph as this dumb lovable guy who means well but messes up despite his good intentions, so when he does mess up & do something shitty it’s with this kind of earnest attitude that makes him still feel like The Good Guy

like when he does that to vanellope the tone is a lot more lighthearted than it should be, he’s standing there literally going “hmm how can i stop her from leaving me,., i know, i’ll take away the thing she loves so she has no choice but to come back to me! what a good idea!” like he sees absolutely Nothing wrong with that. it really rubs me the wrong way, like they’re almost trying to get you to root for ralph in this situation, like they want you to want ralph to succeed in doing this awful thing so he can succeed and “save” his friendship w/ vanellope

it would have been different if like, going off of the other idea i had about the virus, right. it’s now the same virus from the tron game, so the audience already knows about it and how dangerous it is because they were warned about it at the beginning of the movie. ralph also knows this, but he decides to use it anyway because he’s that desperate and afraid to lose vanellope. the scene where he makes this decision, rather than having him belt out the plot synopsis version of his thought process, is more dramatic, weighty. we see him really Thinking about it, weighing the options in his mind, it’s clear that he understands the consequences. 

this way there is already some guilt in the equation from the beginning so that when it blows up in his face and almost literally kills vanellope there is a real Consequence to his mistake, and it’s a harsh wakeup call as to how horrible he’s actually being. like a “i knew it was wrong and i did it anyway, so now i pay the price” kind of thing, instead of the movie’s “oh no!! i didn’t know it would be this bad!!! i thought i would just be ruining things for my best friend in a harmless way!!” like, the movie really wants to take the blame off of ralph and make him seem as innocent as possible and it’s a Real Bad Look imo.

changing things this way would also give their subsequent fight a lot more punch because instead of ralph being like “ghfnkgjsdkg i didn’t mean to!!!!1” he would be like “i did a bad thing and i’m sorry” and when vanellope feels betrayed and denounces their friendship (as she has every right to) it would feel so much more deserved and therefore painful, the Good kind of painful that this movie tried to have & desperately needed to do well

it also would have been good for ralph’s individual character development, because hmm what were some of the major themes from the first movie? being a bad guy? making an effort to do good in spite of that?? being a hero??? being mindful of your actions and the effect they have on the people around you???? not to mention the WHOLE thing about him desperately trying to break out of the box the label “bad guy” had put him in, and how now in THIS movie vanellope is essentially trying to do the same thing? how now ralph is the one literally trying to force her back into that box (in this case, her game) just so that things are easier for him??? do u see where im going here

this could be the point where ralph realizes he needs to let vanellope go & chase her own happiness because he remembers how terrible it felt being forced into a role that made him miserable. he can now see how suffocating and toxic he’s being and there’s no need for a fucking Ralph Virus to come along and tell him that to his face because he’s emotionally intelligent and capable of deep personal introspection and deserves way more credit than this movie gives him, god

eliminating the need for the ralph virus is good because 1. who thought that was a good idea, it shattered what little was left of my suspension of disbelief instantly and 2. it once again took the weight of villainy off of ralph’s shoulders by giving the movie an even Bigger Baddie to compare him to, thereby making him the lesser immediate evil (like, it pulls all his toxic behavior away from him and dumps it instead into this big “”Evil”” caricature version of ralph so that the Real ralph can be the Good Guy and take it down)

instead of that, give ralph the benefit of figuring out his own shit, and then reveal that the virus wasn’t destroyed in the slaughter race reboot and is now infecting various parts of the internet (it’s been at it this whole time, but only got noticed after it had spread too wide to contain, it’s a Real Big Problem now. also it’s just a Normal Not Ralph Virus, Just A Plain Old Good Ol’ Fashioned Monster). have him go after it on his own, to take responsibility for the thing that was His Fuckin Fault, symbolizing him acknowledging how serious and destructive his obsession with vanellope has become and trying to fix it. get vanellope involved. have them figure out their shit

the climax can play out however, just the most important things in the end are that ralph gives a real apology, shows that he really learned his lesson, maybe gives some kind of speech about it, and there’s no bullshit where vanellope realizes he was just insecure & therefore his actions are more understandable, the resolution comes from ralph apologizing honestly and expecting nothing in return and vanellope being touched by this and giving him a second chance because he is her best friend and she knows him well enough to see that he genuinely has learned from this experience and will strive to do better and she loves and trusts him and was never going to leave him behind in the first place because their bond is so strong & there’s still the thing where she gets to live in slaughter race & they keep in touch long distance now bc that was a good way to show that ralph has learned his lesson & is now giving vanellope the space she needs and both of their arcs are resolved and their friendship is stronger than ever despite (or rather because of) change, happily ever after, the end

sorry i got tired but u know, w/e; points were made, rambles were had, mission accomplished. may i never spend this much time or effort thinking about this movie again, amen

[lucyariablog]

16 More Quotes to Inspire Your Content Marketing

In 2017, I shared a compilation of 23 inspirational quotes, from Rachael Ray to Ann Handley to Andy Weir and many people in between. Each of those quotes continues to inspire me and impact the way I think about content marketing

Today, to kick off the new year, the CMI editorial team asked me to share some more quotes.

I’ve been a quote junkie since I was a kid. Some of the quotes I’ve included this year I picked up recently. Others came from the dog-eared journal I started in 1993, which includes gems like this one:

Embarrassing? Absolutely. But …

My hope is that you pick up some inspiration from these quotes or think about familiar ideas in a new way.

Maintain your energy

Much of the work we need to do as marketers – and, more importantly, as makers – requires us to think and create. And, quite frankly, there is only so much time we can meaningfully write, develop, or create day in, day out.

Michael Simmons captures the idea perfectly in his article aptly titled An Ambitious Person’s Brutally Honest Take On Work-Life Balance:

“In the world of long-distance running, the idea of someone starting off a race by sprinting as fast as they can until they collapse from exhaustion is obviously stupid. Yet, when it comes to our careers, many of us follow this mentality.

Expert marathoners, on the other hand, purposely run slower than their full potential so they can run longer and actually win the race.  

We need to redefine hard work from how many hours we work in a week (the equivalent of our sprinting speed) to how consistently hard we work over a long period of time.”

And, speaking of marathons, we often hear how content marketing is a marathon, not a sprint, and many articles reference 18 to 24 months as the time frame to build a brand with content marketing. But in the last few years, things have gotten more difficult, and, as  Mark W. Schaefer observes, the journey requires more time:

What I determined was that it took, on average, between two and three years for a personal brand to really ignite. Two and half years. Wow. That’s 30 months of patience.

On average, it takes 2-3 years for a personal brand to ignite, says @markwschaefer. #quotes Click To Tweet

Maintaining focus is tough, especially when the work required will take months, if not years. But, this insight from Entrepreneur Editor in Chief Jason Feifer plays in mind to help me stay on track:

I don’t want to work nonstop – that only ends in burnout – but I want to make sure I’m using my time as wisely as possible. So I started measuring time in terms of outcome. I’d ask myself, ‘What do I get for this hour spent? What can I show for it later?’  … There may never be time for everything, but there is always time for plenty. It’s just a question of priorities.

There may never be time for everything, but there is always time for plenty, says @heyfeifer. #quotes Click To Tweet

While maintaining that focus is an ongoing journey (ahem, struggle), the best thing to get me back on track is unadulterated, pure quiet. I emphasized this idea in my previous quote post, and it’s why I was so mesmerized by this quote from Zen master Ryutan:

You are like this cup; you are full of ideas. You come and ask for teaching, but your cup is full; I can’t put anything in. Before I can teach you, you’ll have to empty your cup.

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT:

7 Productivity Killers for Marketers and How to Fix Them

How to Brainstorm and Prioritize Your Best Content Ideas

Do, don’t (over)think

Like many marketers, I love coming up with ideas and starting projects, but I can burn out as the project slogs on. But these next quotes remind me that the actual doing (not the thinking about doing) are most important.

You’d be hard pressed to come up with an idea so bad that it couldn’t succeed with the right execution. And it would be even harder to imagine a great idea that couldn’t fail if the execution were left to morons. Ideas are worthless. Execution is everything. – Scott Adams, Dilbert creator

Ideas are worthless. Execution is everything. @Dilbert_Daily #quotes Click To Tweet

You are not a leader because you have better insight – you are a leader because you make decisions. – David C. Baker, The Business of Expertise

Embrace constraints

Too often we bemoan lack of time or lack of budget or lack of (insert your gripe here). But sometimes, it’s these very constraints that help us focus.

Here’s a fact: Creativity comes easier within constraints …  Constraints make the haiku one of the world’s most moving poetic forms. They give us boundaries that direct our focus and allow us to be more creative. This is, coincidentally, why tiny startup companies frequently come up with breakthrough ideas. They start with so few resources that they’re forced to come up with simplifying solutions. – Shane Snow, Smartcuts

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: The 3 Behaviors Driving the Most Creative Content Marketers

Connect with the (right) people

Another thing that keeps me energized is working with people who challenge me – and whom I enjoy. I have been proactively reaching out to marketers and business owners this year, and while not every conversation has an action, I always learn something new. (And, thus far, everyone has agreed to talk.)

Working with people who challenge me energizes me and my work, says @MicheleLinn. Click To Tweet

Allen Gannett expresses this idea clearly in this quote from his book The Creative Curve (I recommend it):

The point is, don’t wait for someone to take you under their wing; initiate the process yourself. If you meet someone who is successful in a field you want to learn about, approach them. Be curious. Be relentless!

Don’t wait for someone to take you under their wing; initiate the process yourself, says @Allen. #quotes Click To Tweet

My business partner, Clare McDermott, and I often talk about the value of “creative abrasion.” I always look to work with people who ask questions, poke holes in my thinking, or otherwise give me a new perspective. While too much friction isn’t a good thing, embrace what Allen calls the conflicting collaborator:

For this reason, I call the ideal person to work with a conflicting collaborator. Basically, you don’t want to collaborate with someone who is so easy to get along with that they don’t push you. The goal is to find a person who will help you discover and overcome your flaws. 

Here’s another reminder why it’s critical to embrace other perspectives:

Our senses are limited therefore our view of the world is limited. This is not a problem unless we start believing that what we perceive is all there is to be perceived. – Peter McWilliams, self-help author

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: The Secret to Hitting the Creative Sweet Spot

Embrace your own path

One of the drums beating loudly this year is eschewing best practices and forging our own paths (and the more varied perspectives you have, the better).

As such, I can’t help but be reminded of this quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson. (Did anyone else go through a transcendentalist phase in high school? Just me? My quote book is littered with ideas from Walt Whitman, Henry David Thoreau, and Ralph Waldo Emerson.):

Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail, says #RalphWaldoEmerson via @MicheleLinn. #quotes Click To Tweet

Taking your own path also means having a point of view, which Meera Kothand summarizes in her book, Your First 100. (Meera is a new-to-me content marketer I stumbled upon this year. I’ve really enjoyed her action-oriented emails and books):

Value doesn’t come from feeding your audience with free tips that everyone else is already saying. You provide value when you’re able to inspire a commitment to change. You add to the content literature in your niche when you have a distinctive point of view. This is also how you build content authority.

You add to the #content literature in your niche when you have a distinctive POV, says @MeeraKothand. #quotes Click To Tweet

This is not to say that we can’t learn from others, but I challenge you to take the best of what you know, apply it, and do you.

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: Your Brand Needs a Point of View, But Do You?

Start now, from where you are

This last set of quotes (of which there are quite a few) may be the most important and universal. Own where you are and keep moving forward.

I unfortunately don’t know who said this next gem, but I have repeated this quote numerous times since I heard it at Content Marketing World last year:

“You can’t compare your beginning to someone else’s middle.”

It echoes these popular Chinese proverbs:

“The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.”

“Be not afraid of going slowly, be afraid only of standing still.”

And I leave you with this quote from Jay Acunzo who is talking to all of my marketing friends who experience this sense of paralysis because we think our work can be better:

Perfect isn’t the enemy of good, nor is it the barrier to done. I just think we’re framing the idea all wrong. Aspire to perfection over time, but make sure you’re taking one step forward today.

Aspire to perfection over time, but make sure you’re taking one step forward today, says @jayacunzo. Click To Tweet

Continue to prioritize, do, and own the best possible version of yourself, while making sure you have a hearty dose of quiet, so you can recharge and keep moving forward no matter where you are.

I’d love to hear what you are thinking about as we start the year. Share your favorite quotes – or ideas – in the comments.

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: The Best Content Marketing Books of 2017 to Boost Your Creativity and Productivity

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Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute

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from https://contentmarketinginstitute.com/2019/01/quotes-inspire-marketing/