Freak Factor

Freak Factor

In David Rendall's "Freak Factor," his main message is to accentuate your freak factor. Let your freak flag fly. Accentuate the positive in you, and eliminate the negative. In most aspects, he's right; why focus on what's wrong with you instead of harnessing and being proud of what you're good at. Some are good at sports, but excel in art or music. Some excel in academics and suck at sports. Some are good at sports and academics, but have no creativity. What Rendall is saying is if you've found something you're good at, your strengths, spending your time strengthening your strengths is more valuable then trying to fix your weaknesses.

2. What's my problem?

Here, Rendall's explains that why dwell on your flaws or weaknesses, when you have the ability to use these flaws to your advantage. In questioning your weaknesses, you're viewing yourself in a negative way, when you can channel these weaknesses into something productive. Like he says, being talkative could be seen as a negative quality in a person, but rather than working on learning how to not be talkative, use this quality to your advantage; be a stand up comedian, be a talk show host, be a professional speaker. Sometimes people with ADHD see it as being a flaw to themselves, but those with high energy can definitely be put to use better than people with low energy.

4. Forget It: Don’t Try to Fix Your Weaknesses

I don't completely agree with this point. In most situations, it is more beneficial to concentrate on enhancing your strengths rather than working on your weaknesses. However, I think it would be a good idea for someone who's an asshole to spend some time trying to not be an asshole, while balancing their time working on their strengths...so this isn't entirely true. Then again, assholes finish first. If Mark Zuckerberg wasn't such an asshole, he wouldn't be where he is today...like before he's utilizing one of his flaws to be beneficial to him.

6. Focus: You Can’t Do Both

I believe this is true. Personally, I'd rather be super good at something and not work to be good at something I suck at. I see no point. Maybe others don't but if you think about it, it makes no sense. Many artists have horrible addiction problems, but instead of trying to perfect their art while working on their addictive personality, their art becomes even stronger as its focused on more. That's how rock stars are known. Many have died but they've made history. If they had spent all their time working on their flaws, they wouldn't have produced their music in such an epic way. Besides, like Rendall says, what would you enjoy more: strengthening your strengths, or working on a weakness. Focusing on your strengths is just going to make you feel better overall than being miserable trying to fix your weaknesses.



As for me, sometimes I wish I was better at more of the different media outlets we have learned in class. I'm not very good with animation, and I don't play videogames, but I really enjoyed creating soundscapes and using garageband and recording software. But I guess I feel better about myself thinking maybe I have more strengths where someone else has weaknesses, but I respect others have strengths where I have weaknesses.