Friday, June 08, 2012

The Expert in Expert Opinions -- The Formative Years


5 comments:

My Daily Struggles said...

David Callet is the dude in the center.

Nice smile, David!

My Daily Struggles said...

Penn State -- 1970

I graduated Penn State in 1975. I was a member of the lost generation!

My Daily Struggles said...

Interesting fact:

Two other known frat members at Akin Gump were Malcolm Lassman and Robert S. Strauss.

Callet's and Strauss's fraternities were Jewish fraternities. Lassman's was probably a Jewish fraternity as well.

I wonder if Earl Segal (Penn State 1969) was a frat brother?

My Daily Struggles said...

Could David Callet and I have been friends in college? Not bloody likely. You see, I am a MacKinnon Type I (it's part of my psychopathology) and David Callet is probably a Type III (he was a frat member):

MacKinnon gathered personality data on architects. The data clustered into three personality types: (I) the artist (creative), (II) neurotic (conflicted; artiste manque), and (III) the average (adapted). (Architects were chosen because they combine art with science, business, even psychology). His research found significant differences among the three groups.

Group I scored highest, in MacKinnon's analysis, on aggression, autonomy (independence), psychological complexity and richness, and ego strength (will); their goal was found to be "some inner artistic standard of excellence."

Group II scored intermediate on independence, close to (I) on richness, and highest on anxiety; their goal was "efficient execution."

Group III scored highest on abasement, affiliation, and deference (socialization); their goal was to meet the standard of the group.

At Akin Gump I never stood a chance with David Callet. He probably placed a lot of emphasis on my social isolation at the firm and my seeming oddness as signs that I was a little screwy. That evaluation would simply have been an externalization of David Callet's emphasis on socialization and affiliation. Hence, his apparent reaction of disdain to my self-analysis (The Caliban Complex):

http://dailstrug.blogspot.com/2011/05/surveillance-by-akin-gump-how-it-might.html

I wrote the Caliban Complex because I am a Type I and David Called disdained the writing because he's a Type III.

My Daily Struggles said...

In mid-June 1988 David Callet said to me: "I notice you seem to work very hard."

I am an inner-directed person. I do what I do because of my inner standards.

David Callet, as a Type III, is outer-directed -- hence his perception that I worked hard to impress others.

In fact, I couldn't care less about impressing others -- or being embarrassed by others. I do what I feel is right and in accord with my inner standards.