The freelancer triangle.

A friend of mine recently told me about something called the triangle of strangeness. It’s a basic mental model which can be used in contexts which are a bit out of the ordinary.

The three points in the triangle are: What you say, How you look and How you act. Then there’s one rule: one of the corners are allowed some strangeness. For example: I can wear dreads and no shoes (strange to most people), but then I can’t say anything out of the ordinary or act strangely in any way.

It’s used in context where there’s a need for some level of credibility. When we talk about stuff that’s strange to most people, we have to shape the other two corners up a bit. When we look strange to people, we’ll have to make sense and behave. That’s if we want to be taken seriously in most contexts.

In my experience, this is quite true. In school, I used to have dreadlocks and if it wasn’t necessary, I wouldn’t wear shoes. On the other hand, I was the head of the student board, spoke well and in general a well behaved kid. People trusted me, regardless of the out of place looks.

This can be extremely useful getting in to new contexts. If you really want to fit in or make a good impression, make sure to tick all of the corners off. Speak well, look decent and behave.