But some people seem to have read it and heard this instead [...]
When I write posts, I’d often be tempted to use examples from my own life, but then I’d think:
Do I really just intend to use myself to illustrate some point of rationality, or do I subconsciously also want to raise my social status by pointing out my accomplishments?
Regardless of what I “really intend”, others will probably see those examples as boasting, and there’s no excuse (e.g., I couldn’t any better examples) I can make to prevent that.
This usually stops me from using myself as examples, sometimes with the result that the post stays unwritten or unpublished. I’m not saying that you should do the same since you have different costs and benefits to consider (or I could well be wrong myself and shouldn’t care so much about not being seen as boasting), but the fact that people interpret your posts filled with personal examples/accomplishments as being arrogant shouldn’t have come as a surprise.
Another point I haven’t seen brought up yet is that social conventions seem to allow organizations to be more boastful than individuals. You’d often see press releases or annual reports talking up an organization’s own accomplishments, while an individual doing the same thing would be considered arrogant. So an idea to consider is that when you want to boast of some accomplishment, link it to the Institute and not to an individual.
This usually stops me from using myself as examples, sometimes with the result that the post stays unwritten or unpublished.
You could just tell the story with “me” replaced by “my friend” or “someone I know” or “Bob”. I’d hate to miss a W_D post because of a trivial thing like this.
When I write posts, I’d often be tempted to use examples from my own life, but then I’d think:
Do I really just intend to use myself to illustrate some point of rationality, or do I subconsciously also want to raise my social status by pointing out my accomplishments?
Regardless of what I “really intend”, others will probably see those examples as boasting, and there’s no excuse (e.g., I couldn’t any better examples) I can make to prevent that.
This usually stops me from using myself as examples, sometimes with the result that the post stays unwritten or unpublished. I’m not saying that you should do the same since you have different costs and benefits to consider (or I could well be wrong myself and shouldn’t care so much about not being seen as boasting), but the fact that people interpret your posts filled with personal examples/accomplishments as being arrogant shouldn’t have come as a surprise.
Another point I haven’t seen brought up yet is that social conventions seem to allow organizations to be more boastful than individuals. You’d often see press releases or annual reports talking up an organization’s own accomplishments, while an individual doing the same thing would be considered arrogant. So an idea to consider is that when you want to boast of some accomplishment, link it to the Institute and not to an individual.
You could just tell the story with “me” replaced by “my friend” or “someone I know” or “Bob”. I’d hate to miss a W_D post because of a trivial thing like this.