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My advantage (and disadvantage) in life is that people find me terrifying: this is partly "intellectually intimidating", but it's partly some other type of fear —several other types of fear, perhaps.
Interesting. Do you have much success with that?
Depends on what you mean by success.
A lot of people perceive me to be a genius, in a lot of different contexts.
Not a lot of people want to work with me. Not a lot of people want to help me.
Being perceived as a talented, handsome genius is better than being perceived as an untalented, ugly moron.
Being perceived as dangerous is better than being perceived as innocuous.
I have never had the impression that men who are "more approachable" have better lives than those who are intimidating and unapproachable. And we're talking about people being intimidated by my intellectual and ethical qualities: they're not intimidated because I'm great at basketball, etc.
^ We're living through a period of history in which wealthy and highly educated men get covered with tattoos (even facial tattoos) in an attempt to be MORE intimidating. Is this more or less civilized than the 18th century aristocrat, who would swagger around wearing a sword, ready to challenge anyone to a duel over a point of honor, etc.
E.M.
