Friday Five: Superpowers

1. You have superpowers! Are you a hero, a villain, or just trying to get by?

Yes :) That is, in my head I always expect myself to be driven by strong principles, and that does show up in many ways -- sticking to principles I've made stubbornly rather than letting them accidentally fall by the wayside, but also sometimes following the rules too strictly and dropping the ball in other ways.

But in practice, often my life ends up characterised by what I actually do when I'm overthinking those things. So maybe "trying to get by"

2. What's your origin story?

What IS my origin story? I guess mostly -- I was born this way. I was born with significant problems -- being too cautious and not driven enough, and sometimes a bit slow to "get" people, and not exactly rich, and with significant difficulty getting things done. But also with significant advantages -- being intelligent, and determined in some ways, and always caring about people, and never in poverty, and lucky enough to channel into a good education and a good job. My life could have gone many many different ways, but I think a lot of it flowed from those things, not a specific turning point.

3. What is your superpower?

Something that is easily quantifiable in some ways, but has profound philosophical implications in other ways.

4. Every superpowered individual has a weakness. What's yours?

Starting things, finishing things, doing boring things, doing important things, phone calls, contradicting people, being seen.

5. What is the most mundane use you've put your powers to? Do you use laser vision to cut your hair, for example?

Again I probably have weirdly specific self-rules to help me manage the question of "is this overusing it", where there's big swathes of time when I just go ahead and use the most effective hammer I have, but some things where it feels like for me it's a slippery slope and I need to always do them the mundane way or I'll get cut off from something important.