THE FUNCTIONAL PSYCHOPATH

The book "The Wisdom of Psychopaths" by Kevin Dutton is a great tool to understand how successful people thrive in their careers - they have important qualities in common with sociopaths and criminal psychopaths whose personality features make them the dominants in day to day situations.

People who have psychopathic tendencies and yet don't commit crimes are mostly labelled as "sociopaths", they manage to scale the success ladder because of their lack of emotional engagement, their ruthlessness, focus and tenacity.

I believe some people could benefit with such study and this is why I selected the book's best ideas on how to translate a popularly known psychopathy into a "functional psychopathy":

-The triumvirate of personality traits: The stratospheric self-esteem of narcissists, the fearless, ruthless, impulsive and thrill-seeking, the deceitful can all actually do pretty well for themselves.

-Narcissism is associated with self-promotion and ostentatious displays of success and machiavellianism, with being socially manipulative.

-Creativity - which brings good strategic thinking and excellent communication skills.

-The problem with a lot of people is that what they think is a virtue is actually a vice in disguise. It’s much easier to convince yourself that you’re reasonable and civilised, than soft and weak, isn’t it?

-Ninety-nine percent of things people worry about never happen. So what’s the point? “I think the problem is that people spend so much time worrying about what might happen, what might go wrong, that they completely lose sight of the present. They completely overlook the fact that, actually, right now, everything’s perfectly fine.”

-Next time you’re in a situation where you’re scared, just think: “Imagine I didn’t feel this way, What would I do then?” And then just do it anyway (good advice, if you’ve got the balls to take it!).

-You cannot allow any members of your brain’s emotional executive committee to knock on the door of the decision-making boardroom, let alone take the seat at the table. Ruthlessly, remorselessly, relentlessly, you have to stay in the present. You can't let what happened yesterday affect what happens today. If you do, you'll go under in no time.

-Focus on the job in hand and when that job is finished, just walk away and forget it ever happened.

-Psychopaths never procrastinate

GERMANO CELANT ON FASHION

Germano Celant did a great interview a couple of years ago with Donatien Grau for his column at Another Magazine's website, where he speaks with great thinkers and creatives about fashion and it's connections to contemporary creativity, and this one it's definitely worth revisiting.

I chose to feature here a special part of the interview, where Mr. Celant talks about the importance of fashion in history, as I believe the big public i.e. not related to the fashion industry community, would really benefit from this information - about the deeper roots of fashion in regards to political, social and economical events through out history.

You can read the whole interview HERE.

What is the role of history and art history in your conception of fashion?
It is a problem in fashion history, which is, today, still seen as something a bit superficial. Fashion has do with creating images, images to look at, images to abide to, and that played a major role in constructing a political awareness. It would also be a linguistic history of reality. Umberto Eco started it ages ago, but this history could play a major role in understanding art. Until, say, the French Revolution, art was fundamentally a representation of the divine. But inside of that representation there was a sense of reality. From the very moment that you represent a body, which can be naked, or idealised, it has to do with fashion: the fact that, at a certain moment in history, men were bearded or weren’t, is in itself a sign of fashion.

Would you describe fashion as a language and a discourse, as Barthes did?
In the 1960s, with semiology, we learned the logic of analysing signs. All signs became of equal importance. Someone like Warhol used every language in a very democratic way: he opened the way to a democratisation of language, in the way we look at advertising, at self-portraits, at painting... He used everything as a way to communicate. It was a great moment of democratisation, and also, of trivialisation, which is very much part of the concept of "pop". We have to deal with this democratisation of languages, which is not gone yet. The idea that something happened in every form of language, including fashion, is still an operation that is quite difficult to put together, and which remains very necessary.

"Fashion doesn’t consist of style anymore, but in the ability to jump stylistically from one style to another."

What does fashion have to do with intellectuality? 
A lot. Fundamentally, fashion is a language and a utility. And since there is no distinction between “pure” and “impure” anymore, there can be a constructive dialogue between the different languages: with art and architecture. If they don’t, they lose track with reality, which is so diverse. And the other thing is that fashion has a global audience, like cinema. Maybe it’s the reasons why intellectuals are afraid of fashion. Fashion, too, sometimes, is scared of becoming theoretical. But when they get together, they build a remarkable force.

 "Venere degli Stracci" by Michelangelo Pistoletto

WE NEVER MET

The new hot Instagram of the moment, We Never Met, tells stories about strangers that are photographed from their backs. The duo creators make up funny, everyday-life stories that normally wouldn't fit with the first impression we have about the characters we see in the pictures, and that shows that everyone can relate to them.

Check it out @wenevermet!

"I hate waiting rooms. They keep you there long enough to make you bored but never long enough to finish what you were reading.”

He follows every do's and don'ts on how to wear a suit. But the tie…that's where he goes wild.

"I look like mommy because I'm pretty. My baby brother looks like daddy because he has no hair."

A self-proclaimed French films lover. So far only watched Amélie Poulain.

When they're together he's afraid of nothing. Nothing.

He takes cigarette breaks to escape from work. He gets home late everyday and blames work.

"It's not like I'm crazy for popcorn, but you've got to learn to take what life gives you."

"I've tried crocodile, ostrich and kangaroo. They all taste like chicken. But, like, expensive chickens."

Between four walls they have only one rule: when one cooks, the other does the dishes.

Monday: he buys carrots in an attempt to eat healthier. Saturday: he opens the fridge and find them out-of-date behind the beer.

She once asked for a drink and got a pizza instead. The difference between margarita and margherita finally revealed itself.

"That's why we shouldn't let him pick his costume. We should all be dressed as comics characters, but the bastard has no idea who the Joker is."

THINGSBECOMETHINGS ON INSTAGRAM III

WEEK DAYS.....PASSING BY

Monday

 

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Saturday

Sunday

THINGSBECOMETHINGS ON INSTAGRAM II

Let's Play

ON FASHION SHOWS:

It is hard to have a voice, to have your own personality. 

Does it actually exists? Personality?

This is why we are frantically trying to show it to the world, to prove it's existence.

Why do we do shows? If...it may not be about the clothes (one might argue).

What is that keeps changing, among years and years of dresses, for us to keep doing it? 

Catwalks - over and over again. 

In the end, I know what I am looking for in them: emotional connection. 

I want to feel through what I am seeing. I need to connect to that brand. 

Today is about the person, not the product.

And that is exactly what I want to do too. I want to create emotional connection for me and for others.

PUSHING DAISIES STYLE - SATURATION + VINTAGE