dispatch from santa monica, #5

A reader expressed surprise that I had described myself as profoundly shy in a recent post. Afterward, however, the reader did remember an initial interaction we'd had where my behavior could be interpreted as shyness. At the time, however, the reader had instead concluded from my behavior that I was "mean."

Today, at the workshop, one speaker discussed the WLS.* Given my heavy involvement in the WLS, the speaker noted that if people had questions about the data they could ask "Jeremy Freese, the kind of shy guy in the back of the room." So there. I'm sufficiently shy that it shows. I suppose I would rather be identifiable that way that by someone saying, "Jeremy Freese, the kind of mean guy in the back of the room."

Thing was, I wasn't even actually sitting in back. I was off to the side. It's like I project pathological shyness so strongly that it makes wherever I sit seem like it's the apogee of the room.

* [W]isconsin [L]ongitudinal [S]tudy, the survey of 1957 high school graduates that I work on.