This FT thread is an update of one from around the turn of the century...
So what are the things which make you who you are? Do they make you unique in some way?

As for myself?
I like watching people...whether they present themselves as words on a screen or sit right in front of me spilling coffee on the rug...they are all fascinating.

I fought for about 7 hours deciding whether to reveal myself on this one, especially as to me everything about me seems normal, but from 46 years of other people's observation is clearly not.

I see the world very directly, and subtlety is totally wasted on me. If something isn't spelled out I miss it, but if there's a hidden mechanism if I need to know it I'll look into every possible situation and usually find it, otherwise it will continue to catch me out like a hidden trap.
I have great trouble understanding why other people find the simple and obvious (to me) so complicated or obscure. Then I go and learn and remember every detail about such topics and quote them to anyone who even shows a passing interest. My father saw they were selling Peugeot 206s and 207s together and I said it is very rare but Rover replaced their single model in the late 50s with a new one and both were so popular they ran in parallel for years, and the Renault 6 was brought out as a replacement for the 4, didn't sell well and was stopped a few years later while the 4 carried on regardless for about 40. He was asleep by the last sentence but that's a typical example.

I can't abide starting a story and stopping half way. Therefore my blog and forum entries go on as I have a beginning, middle and end and feel cheated if I abbreviate anything that may be relevant.

Though I feel emotions very strongly I feel obliged to deal with every problem, mine or others with pure logic. And of course I can't resist any opportunity to tell people about my life. It has made me a few friends and many enemies throughout the years, but I do my best to make the stories interesting and only tell people who appear to be awake after the first couple of minutes rather than machine gun style. I could go on and possibly while I wonder if I should write a book that could be one possible option.

Can we have a link to the original thread KT, I don't remember reading that. Nice idea!

Actually, Sats, I tripped over this one by accident the other day, as somebody had pulled it up from the basement, and was reading it. Can't really fetch the link for you but if one searches 'What Makes You Unique ' I'm sure it will pop right back up.
You know how totally inept I am at this stuff, anyway - added with my computer's penchant for re - booting when it gets tired. I only found it after somebody else did the search. I can never get the search engine to work and can't browse through old threads the way everybody else can. All I get is a looong strung out, staggered row of posts and their responses. Then the whole works freezes up.It's been like that for almost a year, and nobody can tell me why.

Anyway - I am sure you can call the thing right up.

Yikes. I've been sitting here for a day now wondering what, if anything, makes me unique. I keep coming up with the same answer: nothing . Thinking about myself in such a general and [mostly] unflattering way got me to scrambling and, even though I think millions have done it before me and likely done it better, the fact that there is NOTHING particularly "outstanding" or "noteworthy" about me, and that I flaunt it, is somehow unique in itself. And, I must add, I'm wondering if there is really anything unique left to pick from out there in the big human 'supermarket'. My guess is that there's a lot of things that we somehow think we alone are but, more than likely, just haven't met all the others who are that way entirely as much. Maybe that's what is partly unique about me then? I'm so average, in the general flow of things, that it hurts. Starting there I can see each and every better-than-average thing in almost everyone. Odd, I reckon, that in a world of people who juggle penguins on TV or bury themselves alive to see how long they can do it I'm content to be just "that guy". Odder still, just taking that path is getting more and more unique by the day? Everybody seems to have to prove something, you know? Yawn to that. But I am so glad to have answered this question because it really did get me thinking.
Not sure what the answer did for my self-esteem, though . That'll be another thread...

Ah, it seems something is indeed not right in the state of Funtrivia, I had exactly the same problem when I search (except for freezing) and have posted it in feedback. Very odd...

Gatsby, nothing new under the sun, eh? I think what makes us all unique is the combination of qualities we have, not those qualities themselves. For myself, the particular combination of qualities that I think helps define me are as follows:

A special mix of both right and left-brain thinking, with a healthy dose of creativity in two and three-dimensional space (three more pronounced) and problem solving, plus an ease of understanding jargon in a number of different areas of scientific study so's I don't get confused when discussing them.

I talk... a lot... as many of you have most likely noticed, and I have what I think of as a strangely rambling yet concise way of expressing my thoughts.

I'm emotional to a fault, and run pretty much hot and cold, though I've been told luke-warm is a pretty nice temperature.

I am fiercely loyal to friends and family, and while I don't have a lot of friends, I have more than my fair share of very close friends. However, unlike most people of that persuasion, I do just fine in large groups of people whom I don't know. I'm just picky.

I have always gotten along better with men. Don't know why. I have a number of very close (and old) female friends, but I find it easier to make casual aquaintance with males rather than females. It always seems like I have more to talk about with most guys. (Being more of a dungeons and dragons computer geek type than a shopping / makeup type, myself.)

I tend towards idealism. No really, I know you can all hardly believe it but I swear I do. This has it's pros and cons.

Well, of course those are just the tip of my proverbial iceberg (and no, it would be indecent of me to show you any more, you cads). But, I guess those are most important to me, and I would bet that if you asked someone who knew me what was one thing about me, one of those would be the answer.

Gatsby said :

Quote:

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there is NOTHING particularly "outstanding" or "noteworthy" about me,

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I would beg to differ, and suspect many here would agree with me that amongst other unique traits courage in the face of adversity would be a particularly outstanding one we have all noticed and appreciated about you.

It also seems to me that finding people fascinating is a very tolerant and intelligent attitude, kt, and I wish it was the norm amongst our race instead of being the exception.

And as for you, 'guru, if dedicated enthousiasts didn't get all fired up about their chosen specialised area a heck of a lot of knowledge and information would be lost to us for ever, and I doubt very much that that is the future generations best interests.

As for myself, I'm an ordinary 'Joe Soap' and in this increasingly commercial world I try to hold onto a set of values which is fast being eroded. Having the top-of-the-range this and that, being dressed in the best designer clothing, spending a fortune to have the latest style house or whatever just isn't important to me. Living within your means, making the most of each day and whatever is sent my way and appreciating the little things is my way, and I try to instill similar values in my offspring. Respect of self and others, manners and common courtesy, consideration, honesty and tolerance, is it really too much to ask for?

What's unique about me? I definately have a streak of creativity in me - embroidery, card-making etc. And I try to see the best in everybody...if I meet them in person or "just" on-line . I've got endless paitence with some things, and also got a streak of dtermaination too. So not sure if you'd call me unique, but I think it is fairly unique!

This is reminding me of our two 'Funtrivia awards' (OK, I must take the credit for starting them though the idea was from another website originally), and though technically like their fingerprints everyone is unique, many are not for their good qualities. Being a fairly critical person myself (less with age as I see more as I look) the outstanding do stand out far more clearly to me than for some. I won't embarrass anyone in particular (except to include everyone who has already posted here as I know them all well enough to say so) but these sort of outstanding people all congregate here.

Each in their different way they exemplify the qualities I both look for in my best friends and entertainers, the ones who go on for 60 years and you still want to hear everything they do (like Frankie Howerd, who I was lucky enough to see perform live). He is a good example, there is no one like him in any way or form on the whole planet. I may not know them all, but how many times do you meet someone who reminds you of someone else? All the time in my case, and it amazes me how two unrelated people could be so similar, but not for outstanding ones. So like Frankie Howerd, Sid James, Kenneth Williams (see a pattern forming...?) and many more were probably nothing like anyone, except possibly Arthur Smith as Sid James. I think some modern comedians model themselves on earlier ones, but Angus Deayton can never be John Cleese even if he reads the scripts word for word.

I'd never get bored with a selection of us around here in person, as I never do on a screen. And I've spoken to many live or in IMs and there are many depths hidden you don't see here as you can imagine...