He brought it up several times on Xitter without context and never explained it in-depth but it seems interesting.
Hi, I derived the idea from Clotaire Rapaille’s notion of a “culture code.” This is where he takes an entire culture and summarizes it using as few words as possible – ideally one.
France - IDEAL
Japan - PERFECTION
Germany - ORDER
America - DREAM
And these cultural codes would be reflected in most of the eccentricities the country is known for. For example, the non-existence of litter on Japanese streets, or the tendency for Americans to not read instruction manuals.
Rapaille was a bit of a charlatan – he was exposed by a Quebec newspaper for exaggerating his credentials – but his idea was very significant nonetheless.
I realized that you could apply this code notion to all kinds of systems, everything from ideologies to economic regimes to personality structures. All you have to do is summarize it in as few words as possible, and there – you’ve greatly simplified the structure for your analysis.
Take my personality, for example. The code is probably CHAOS. Everything from my messy hair to my taste in music to my interest in moms is about overcoming my personal chaos. That’s why I’m a perfectionist, why I made this forum, why I talk so much. As a sensitive person, everything is so overwhelming to me, and I must order it somehow. I even replaced the sheets on my bed with a zipper cover like a baby.
With this information, you can extrapolate all kinds of things about what I’m like in private, what I’m going to do next, or what my true motivations are.
Oh, I see. Interesting. This reminds me of when I was discussing “How would you summarize yourself in 1 word?” with friends and I could only think of the word “Undifferentiated” for myself at the time. I think I see it now, it’s the distinct differentiating quality that an idea or person has. Do you have any more ideas on other personality codes you could tell us about?
Well, I’ve been curious about yours, but I don’t know. I think @Zenitsu’s is probably ADULT. He’s very interested in class, normies, mature politics (that is, divorced from subculture and pie-in-the-sky ideologies).
Pilleater’s is definitely BELONGING. He’s basically a spergy, nerdy guy who has never belonged anywhere, so he strived to become a kind of super-hipster.
Ryan Faulk’s is SHAME. He’s kind of like the Department of Shame in the sense that he tries to establish who gets to be shamed and who doesn’t. He has a shameful private life, is ashamed of it, shames others, and creates a virtuosic body of work to defend his positions and thus insulate him from shame. He is also gay, which is a product of shame.