Personality and fasteners: a short study
This is a post about how things are sticky-taped to walls.
While feeling incredibly tired working on my paper, I started analysing the cartoons stuck up on the panel above the sink in the NICTA kitchen area. Most are stuck up with sticky tape, but I noticed that there are several different stickytaping styles. I found three major ones.
Style 1 is a big piece of tape stuck right in the middle at the top, like this:
+----====-----+
| |
+-------------+
Really, one piece of tape is all that is required. The tape is quite sticky, the panel is very amenable to having things stuck to it, and the cartoons are very light. Even so, Style 1 cartoons are the most wonky, and the tape is frequently wrinkled. The Style 1 person clearly could have put more effort into it, but just didn't care. This is the sort of happy-go-lucky "just look at the fucking cartoon and stop examining the sticky tape, you nerd" attitude which I am keen to emulate someday.
Style 2 is a little more conscientious and involves more tape: two pieces on either corner, arranged so that if they were longer they would meet to form a V:
\-------------/
| \ / |
+-------------+
Style 2 shows that the cartoon-sticker has thought a little bit about how the cartoon is going to be stuck. Often Style 2 cartoons are just as wonky as Style 1 cartoons though, so clearly Style 2 is about ensuring the paper stays on the wall without wasting unnecessary effort on the minutiae of its presentation -- a pretty healthy attitude.
Style 3 shows that the taper has really thought about how he (given that this is NICTA, I feel quite comfortable writing "he") is going to to affix the comic: four pieces of tape, one on each corner, arranged so that they would form a quadrilateral surrounding the comic if extended, thus maximising sticking power while minimising coverage of the comic with unsightly sticky tape (vs style 2):
/-------------\
| |
\-------------/
So. Style 1: Haphazard. Kinda cool. Style 3: Meticulous, bordering on obsessive. Style 2: Intermediate.
Oddly, even though I think it's overkill, I'm pretty sure that Style 3 is the style I would use if I ever wanted to attach a cartoon. Further, I like the sense of humour of the Style 3 guy the best. It's closer to my own. For example, one of the Style 1 cartoons is from User Friendly featuring one of the tech guys handing a cluebrick to a sales guy and telling him to "apply rapidly to head until effective" because he installed Windows Vista. I just don't find this at all funny.
On the other hand, one of the Style 3 cartoons features two dogs in conversation, with one saying to the other "I used to have a blog, but eventually I decided to just go back to pointless, incessant barking." This resonates with me at some deep level.
So, readers. Is there any connection between stickytaping style and sense of humour? Who are the Style 1, Style 2, and Style 3 guys? Is this the kind of psychological research that could get funded, if I had a proposal, an army of willing first-year Psych student volunteers, and a brazen attitude? And when will I get a decent night's sleep?
While feeling incredibly tired working on my paper, I started analysing the cartoons stuck up on the panel above the sink in the NICTA kitchen area. Most are stuck up with sticky tape, but I noticed that there are several different stickytaping styles. I found three major ones.
Style 1 is a big piece of tape stuck right in the middle at the top, like this:
+----====-----+
| |
+-------------+
Really, one piece of tape is all that is required. The tape is quite sticky, the panel is very amenable to having things stuck to it, and the cartoons are very light. Even so, Style 1 cartoons are the most wonky, and the tape is frequently wrinkled. The Style 1 person clearly could have put more effort into it, but just didn't care. This is the sort of happy-go-lucky "just look at the fucking cartoon and stop examining the sticky tape, you nerd" attitude which I am keen to emulate someday.
Style 2 is a little more conscientious and involves more tape: two pieces on either corner, arranged so that if they were longer they would meet to form a V:
\-------------/
| \ / |
+-------------+
Style 2 shows that the cartoon-sticker has thought a little bit about how the cartoon is going to be stuck. Often Style 2 cartoons are just as wonky as Style 1 cartoons though, so clearly Style 2 is about ensuring the paper stays on the wall without wasting unnecessary effort on the minutiae of its presentation -- a pretty healthy attitude.
Style 3 shows that the taper has really thought about how he (given that this is NICTA, I feel quite comfortable writing "he") is going to to affix the comic: four pieces of tape, one on each corner, arranged so that they would form a quadrilateral surrounding the comic if extended, thus maximising sticking power while minimising coverage of the comic with unsightly sticky tape (vs style 2):
/-------------\
| |
\-------------/
So. Style 1: Haphazard. Kinda cool. Style 3: Meticulous, bordering on obsessive. Style 2: Intermediate.
Oddly, even though I think it's overkill, I'm pretty sure that Style 3 is the style I would use if I ever wanted to attach a cartoon. Further, I like the sense of humour of the Style 3 guy the best. It's closer to my own. For example, one of the Style 1 cartoons is from User Friendly featuring one of the tech guys handing a cluebrick to a sales guy and telling him to "apply rapidly to head until effective" because he installed Windows Vista. I just don't find this at all funny.
On the other hand, one of the Style 3 cartoons features two dogs in conversation, with one saying to the other "I used to have a blog, but eventually I decided to just go back to pointless, incessant barking." This resonates with me at some deep level.
So, readers. Is there any connection between stickytaping style and sense of humour? Who are the Style 1, Style 2, and Style 3 guys? Is this the kind of psychological research that could get funded, if I had a proposal, an army of willing first-year Psych student volunteers, and a brazen attitude? And when will I get a decent night's sleep?