Electron Hut: Kyle Bedell’s Blog

Identity. Let’s say your name is Bob Smith. If for whatever reason you couldn’t be called Bob Smith tomorrow, would you care? How much of our internal identity is tied to our name? If you’re not “Bob Smith,” who are you?

This entry is the first in my “Draft Archives” series, consisting of previously unpublished draft posts. They represent various underdeveloped thoughts, ideas, and musings that I never fleshed out, and as such they are quite short. Still, I found them to be interesting at the time, and I hope they make you think a little when you read them. Enjoy!

I wonder sometimes if human beings are capable of fundamentally altering themselves. Psychology tells us that a lot of “who we are” is something that’s mostly solidified by the time we’re six or seven. When we seem like we’ve made some sort of drastic change (from the perspective of those around us) have we really “changed,” or is the old person still somewhere under our skin? How much control do we have post-childhood of our own personalities and behaviors?