Curiosity Without Insecurity — Aishwarya Khanduja
Today, a friend asked me what my answer would be if I were to list my greatest strengths and weaknesses in a job interview. I told him my strength is that I usually have zero shame in asking for what I want. My weakness is that I have a bit of “shiny-object-syndrome”. What I want to talk about today is: shame Young people today have such shame in just existing. I understand it is likely a result of sociocultural and historical factors related to constant passive surveillance on social media (validation from others), collective trauma, and stigma. I’ve talked about this idea of “being cringe” and shame before – feeling cringey about yourself, or making others feel cringe. I wrote about it in Consistency and The Ramanujan Theory of Genius. I realize that “cringe” is insecurity in disguise, rooted in feelings of shame. Now, I am not here to be your therapist. But *my* therapist in this situation would say something along the lines of, “instead of cringe, let’s be curious”. And when she s