Saturday, August 10, 2013

SURVIVAL OF THE FUNNEST

I recently posted a comment on Facebook and this new term just popped out, as often happens. What I said was:
I do seem to have run into a bad batch of contacts recently who don't follow my minimum standard of saying what they're going to do and then doing it. These disappointing folks are in the U.S. and Panama and a few other countries. But as I reflect on the meaning of it all, I have come to the realization that this is good news as it leaves me open to new people and new adventures. If all those rotten apples did follow through with their promises, I would hardly have room to breath--so it's really a form of natural selection. In my case, survival of the funnest. Oops, another new term--this may require a blog post.

As often happens when I think I have invented a new word or phrase, Google humbled me fast. Survival of the Funnest is the name of a video game, and grammarians have been arguing for some time about whether "funnest" is a real word. Actually, I am told on good authority that it is the regular superlative of the adjective form of "fun."
It was notably used when Steve Jobs employed it to describe the iPod upon its introduction to the world.

I do note, getting back to my original point, that friends who are in my life for the long haul seem to be the people I've had the most fun with. I don't know if anyone else has made or researched the connection between dependability and fun-ability. But I have observed that people who seem to have difficulty delivering on their promises, difficulty doing what they say they are going to do, are the more serious types. These are often Type A workaholics who fill their lives with so much activity, they can hardly keep up with their own intentions or promises.

I just learned a new word, which describes a fairly recently diagnosed mental disorder (we do seem to have more of those today than at any time in human history)--Cherophobia. It means the fear of happiness and fun. Perhaps it's a stretch, but I wonder if those people who can't follow through on what they say they will do are afraid that doing so will bring them too much happiness. 

And back to "survival of the funnest," I remember that when I was researching and writing my book, Psychological Immortality, many of the people who went far beyond normal lifespan expectations were those who had a lot of fun in their lives, in both their personal and business lives.
                                                    Jerry

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