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Form Over Content

I seem to be doing a lot of metacognition lately. The last post was a blog about blogs. In this post, I’m thinking about how I think about things.

From time to time, I stop and try to get a handle on how and why I perceive things the way I do. I often run into situations where everyone in a group will react one way to something, and I react a completely different way. Or I see a situation one way, and nobody else has any clue what I am talking about. Today I had an insight, or at least an insight into how to concisely label my way of thinking, making decisions, and expressing myself: Form Over Content. Since I’ve had this insight, I’ve started mentally pulling together examples of this Form Over Content concept, as it relates to me:

• When someone gives me a document to review, be it a school essay, a resumé, a technical specification, or a letter, the first things I notice are spelling, grammar, punctuation, formatting, flaws in the print, etcetera. Only after I’ve taken that all in do I begin to notice what the document actually says… and I rarely have as much insight into that as I do the technical aspects.

• If someone gives me a link to their website, and I’m visiting it for the first time, the first things I notice are the layout, formatting, colors, technical errors, code errors, broken images, etcetera. If asked for comments, those are the things I’ll point out. Eventually I’ll get around to reading the content.

• When I listen to music, I am most in tune to the melodies and harmonies, the rhythms, the patterns, the phrases, and the technical accuracy of the performers. If the music has words, I tend to be concerned more with the way the lyrics sound and the melody of the singer’s voice, rather than what they are actually saying. In addition, I tend to appreciate the rhyme, cadence, and timing of the lyrics. I can usually memorize a song’s lyrics quickly, not because they are interesting to me, but because I enjoy how their form fits into the overall form of the song. You might even find me singing along to a lot of songs, but rarely am I singing because I find the lyrics themselves meaningful or interesting. There are a very small number of songs that I actually value because of their content, but these are very, very few. I think this may be why I like They Might Be Giants so much… their lyrics are so absurd to the point of simply mocking the meaningful lyrics of other groups.

• When I make music (I play the cello and sing bass/baritone for those who don’t know; but not as much as I used to, much to my wife’s disappointment), I am focused on the technical accuracy. I am primarily concerned with accurately representing the notation on the music in front of me.

• In taking a photograph, I don’t think so much about how it will impact the viewer, or what emotions it will evoke. Rather, I want to make sure that the photo clearly represents a place or concept, that it is well composed, follows the rule of thirds where possible, and has the most accurate color and lighting representation of the scene that it can.

• In terms of housekeeping, I tend to be quite orderly. I like to have things organized as neatly as possible and arranged in the most efficient manner. I like to have dishes put away and laundry in a basket and books in a shelf. When I enter a room, the first thing I notice is how the room is laid out, what things look out of place, what furniture is in need of repair, what could be improved or changed. I don’t usually think, “Is this a comfortable place? Is this a welcoming place? Is this a place that people will enjoy being in?”

So what does all of this mean? How does a person come to think about the world in this way? Does this mean that I’m not an emotional person? I don’t think so. I’ve come to the conclusion that my emotions are most often triggered by different sorts of things than others. A well-composed photograph makes me pleased. A song performed well makes me happy. A misspelled word or a technical error makes me angry. A messy room makes me sad.

There are, of course, things that will trigger more traditional emotion. There are a few songs that, when I hear them, bring a tear to my eye. When Becky walked down the aisle at our wedding, I nearly cried, but was also overwhelmed with happiness. When Becky is away for a weekend and I don’t get to see her at night, I get very sad. When I see a 9/11 memorial video, I get sad. When I get to see family or friends I haven’t seen in a while, I’m very happy. When I hear about a social injustice, I get angry. Prick me, do I not bleed? Tickle me, do I not laugh? That sort of thing.

So there you go. Form Over Content is me in a nutshell. Why am I like this? I don’t know, and I’m not complaining. I’m just… metacognating.