I don’t really have anything specific to write about today but there are a lot of questions floating around in my head that I would like to get down somewhere.

1. What is reputation, why does it matter, and how much should we care about it?
2. In regards to #1, what is privacy and how does it affect our lives. Where does it’s importance lie and how should it be protected? (I’m probably not going to even attempt to speculate on this one. At least not without doing some research first.)
3. At what point does it become necessary to know everything about something you are doing? For example, when doing something, is it necessary to know the history and motivation behind every action? This question was raised by a recent short discussion about religion, but I think it applies in a more general sense.

I guess I’ll start on #1 and see where things go from there. I used to be incredibly over-concerned with what other people thought about me. Then I went through a phase where I basically said “Fuck you, world” and didn’t care at all (at least that was my ideal). Now I find myself somewhere in the middle of those two extremes. A large reason for this reversion to the middle has been exposure to professional environments. I have always known that it is important to be well liked and respected professionally in order to really go places in a corporate world. However it is only somewhat recently that I have given in and decided to play the “game.”

I am of the opinion that reputation is important since we are social creatures. We’re stuck together and are going to form opinions about one another, so why would you not want that opinion to be a good one?

Networking is still something that I have issues with. It still seems incredibly self-centered and fake to be making “friends” only with the hope that they can somehow help you get promoted or make more money or something similar. I understand that this isn’t necessarily the only reason to meet and befriend professional contacts, but I think it is the driving one in many cases. I find it incredibly difficult to make small talk with somebody simply because doing so might let them know I exist. Now this is completely different from just being friendly. I’m talking about the following type of thought: “That guy is the vice president of . I should go talk to him because he would be a good person to know professionally and might help me out in the future.”

I have no problem with wanting to be successful. I’m just saying I feel dirty whenever I try to do something like the above scenario.

On a purely personal level, I think the line is actually harder to draw. At one extreme we have the person with no regard for others’ opinions of her. At the other we have the person who’s every action is dictated by what others might make of it. I’m still somewhat inclined to side more with the first person’s perspective. I have yet to hear really good arguments for why I should care what any random person thinks about me. Of course there is the idea that I want people to like me so that I can have friends and people to talk to or hang out with (going back to the whole social creatures thing). How far can you extend this? Also, when does not caring (or at least acting like you don’t care) become another way of enticing people to think more highly of you?

So from what I’ve said so far, it seems to me like personal reputation is itself a purely selfish thing. On a purely individual level, I don’t know if there is anything that isn’t selfish about it. Not that this is necessarily bad. However anytime you become a member of a group or organization then your reputation adds to the collective reputation of the group and any actions damaging to your reputation are also damaging to the group. In this case there is a level of unselfishness and responsibility involved.

I think I am actually more confused at the end of this post than when I started. I attribute some of this to lack of sleep. Anyway I will maybe be able to address the other questions above in later posts. I just needed to get them down as to not forget.