#self-aggrandizing

[thepersonalwords]

Truthful hyperbole’ is a contradiction in terms. It’s a way of saying, ‘It’s a lie, but who cares?’ 

Tony Schwartz

[dawiebe]

You’re Important Because You Say You’re Important

You’re Important Because You Say You’re Important

Most entrepreneurs find self-aggrandizing awkward and uncomfortable. In one way or another, consciously or unconsciously, we’ve all been conditioned to hold back. To avoid appearing cocky or arrogant. To save face. To sidestep drawing attention to ourselves. But if you don’t act as though you’re important, who’s going to do it on your behalf? More certificates, diplomas, degrees, and doctorates…

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[memeticmetonymy]

[trmpt]

Some officials fear Trump will get the intelligence he wants, not the intelligence he needs, from DNI pick

Rep. John Ratcliffe, the president’s choice to be intelligence chief, seems to share Trump’s suspicion of some in the national security comm

That’s why he’s picking him. Trump claimed he is too “smart” to need intelligence early on and has either ignored it or agitated against it ever since. Guess his fans and minions and sycophants like Trump’s ignorance and stupidity, guess they don’t care if he fucks over the USA .

[muddypolitics]

The TiVo presidency: Trump relives Trump

"They don't realize, it's a lot of work. It's not easy."

the leader of the GOP likes to re-watch his rallies and talk about how great he is...

[meaninglessmonicker]

You either die a hero, or you live long enough to see yourself become an entry on a collegehumor article.

[postspecificpost]

On the arbitrariness of importance

I remember once looking up a young precocious artist's website after reading a review praising his work. The work was okay, or maybe just bad, but it was by no means technically or conceptually strong. Going from his portfolio pages to his "about" page, I then saw why he was getting his dues: because while he was not artistically talented, he was awesome at marketing himself.

For his bio, as a young artist in his twenties who wasn't doing anything different or had not created any notable amount of work, he described himself succinctly with vacuous words that included labeling himself as "an important artist." I was annoyed by it, but thought that surely, nobody could take this seriously.

I was wrong.

This was just a drop in the bucket of what has become a trend of "fake it 'til you make it" on steroids in a self-obsessed media that excels at hype over substance. Marketing is incredibly important in this plethora of information, but I would like to believe that skill should still have something to do with the respect that comes with calling something or someone, "important."

Surface praise and the continual abhorrent misdirection of significance in the art world is nothing new, but for something or someone to be deemed "important" I would think that there would be underlying reasons. A token designation is not a reason. I won't object to the degradation of words such as "important" if the speaker backs up the claim. I just need a reason, ideally several, to convince me of a thing's importance. I won't always agree with the reasoning, but the reasoning still needs to be offered. Otherwise, the arbitrariness of importance dilutes our ability for judgement, and we need judgement if we are to live with each other and with ethics.

[aslowsummerdusk]

Most of what I read in 2014.

Here's me typing out what new material I read this year. I believe I read more, but I can't prove it, or find anecdotal evidence on social media that I read more than this. And to be fair, or to continue to self-aggrandize, A Theory Of Justice and Complete Fictions are long commitments. I suppose I could count By Chance Or Providence by Becky Cloonan, but I already read all of the stories that comprise the collection. It's the errata I haven't read. I'm looking at my shelf, thinking, Did I seriously not read a single Faulkner this year? I know I didn't read a Mishima or Pratchett this year, and I still owe it to Kieron Gillen to finish The Gambler. I feel like I read Blacklist by Sara Paretsky this year, but can't prove it. It could have been late 2013. I didn't get to Greg Rucka's Bravo yet, or the London Falling sequel by Paul Cornell. The credits are incomplete, because I'm tired and want to hit publish before I go to bed. Of the stuff I want to make time for, I obviously want to read more non white dudes. Then again, a lot of my favorite authors are white dudes. I'm certain there are other great authors in genre that I haven't become aware of. For Comics, it's really trades and collections, and the numbers are the volume number, where applicable. If I was going to count single issue comics, this list would be more unwieldy. Of the issues I liked this year, Frankenstein's Womb, All-New Invaders #12, The Wicked & The Divine #5, Deadly Class #1, Pretty Deadly #5, Lady Zorro #1, Hellboy In Hell #6 and so on ad infinitum. Captain Victory And The Galactic Rangers had my favorite cover this year. So far. Books: The Literary Conference-Cesar Aíra Orxy and Crake-Margaret Atwood Moxyland-Lauren Beukes Where There's Love, There's Hate-Aldofo Bioy Cesares, Silvina Ocampo The Insufferable Gaucho, Last Evenings On Earth, Woes Of The True Policeman-Roberto Bolaño Collected Fictions-Jorge Luis Borges The Long Goodbye-Raymond Chandler Dr. Bloodmoney-Philip K. Dick Feed-Mira Grant A Delicate Truth-John LeCarré Be Cool, La Brava, Tishomingo Blues, Out Of Sight, Get Shorty-Elmore Leonard Who Will Run The Frog Hospital?, Self-Help-Lorrie Moore Colorless Tsukuru And His Years Of Pilgrimage, Hard Boiled Wonderland And The End Of The World-Haruki Murakami Americanah-Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche Blood Shot-Sara Paretsky A Theory Of Justice-John Rawls Unpopular Essays-Bertrand Russell Essays On Existentialism-Sartre Annihilation-Jeff VanderMeer Death In The Andes-Mario Vargas Llosa On Certainty-Ludwig Wittgenstein Comics: The Coldest City-Antony Johnston, Sam Hart, Others Path Of The Assassin 3-8-Kazuo Koike, Goseki Kojima Gankutsuou 1-2-Mahiro Maeda, Others The Unwritten 8-10-Mike Carey, Peter Gross, Others What Did You Eat Yesterday 1-5-Fumi Yoshinaga Rat Queens 1-Kurtis Wiebe, Roc Upchurch,  Others Southern Bastards 1-Jason Aaron, Jason Latour BPM-Paul Sizer Two-Step-Warren Ellis, Amanda Conner, Jimmy Palmiotti Oldboy 1-3-Garon Tsuchiya, Nobuaki Minegishi Dead Boy Detectives-Jill Thompson Young Blueberry 1-Jean-Michel Charlier, Moebius Old City Blues 1-Giannis Milonogiannis Zero 1-Ales Kot, Others The Playwright-Eddie Campbell Cowl 1-Kyle Higgins, Alec Siegel, Rod Reis The American Way-John Rigley, Georges Jeanty, Karl Story, Others Wildcats 3.0 1-2-Joe Casey, Others Monsters + Others-Gustavo Duarte East Of West 3-Johnathan Hickman, Nick Dragotta, Frank Martin Conan 13-Brian Wood, Becky Cloonan, James Harren, Dave Stewart The White Lama 1-2-Jodorowsky, Bess Spaceman-Brian Azzarello, Eduardo Rizzo, Trisha Mulvhill Revolver, Mind MGMT 1, Super Spy-Matt Kindt, Others Formerly Titled The Horde-Igor Baranko Valentine-Alex DeCampi, Christine Larsen Supermarket-Brian Wood, Kristian Donaldson Sloth-Gilbert Hernandez Skullkickers 4-5-Jim Zub, Edwin Huang, Misty Coats Saucer Country 1-Paul Cornell, Ryan Kelly, Jimmy Broxton, Others Mister X 1-2 Dean Motter Channel Zero v. 1-Brian Wood The Couriers 3-Brian Wood, Rob G The Marquis 2-Guy Davis Akira 2-Katushiro Otomo, Satoshi Kon, Steve Oliff (admittedly only for 2 or 3 pages) The Magic Flute, The Ring Of The Nibelung, Conan Jewels of Gwahlur, Killraven-P. Craig Russell, Lovern Kindzierski, Don McGregor Daredevil Elektra: Love & War-Frank Miller, Bill Sienciewicz She-Hulk 1-Charles Soule ,Javier Pulido, Ron Wimberly, Muntsa Vincente Dogs Of War-Shelia Keenan , Nathan Fox, Others Jack Cross-Warren Ellis, Gary Erskine The Rise Of Aurora West-Paul Pope, JT, Petty, David Rubin The Annotated Mantooth-Fraction, Kuhn, Fisher Nevada-Steve Gerber, Phil Winslade, Steve Leialoha, Dick Giorandano The Seven Magi 1-3-Kaoru Kurimoto, Kazuaki Yangisawa Miss: Better Living Through Crime-Phillippe Thirault, Marc Riou, Mark Vigouroux Leroy + Popo-Louis Roskosch Army @ Love 1-Rick Veitch, Gary Erskine, Jose Villarubia