By now, it has become apparent that logic is almost always more practical than emotions. But what are the advantages of being stiff, cold, calculated person (like Sheldon Cooper, PhD used to be), as opposed to someone really perky and loose?
Well, the first thing would obviously be the lack of emotions clouding your judgement. If you do not show what you feel, what you feel becomes less important within you as well. It is the age-old psychological effect, which is why when you stand up straight, you start feeling more confident; why when you wear clothes you don't like you feel down; why when you wear a bow tie and a brownish jacket you want to pull out a screwdriver from your jacket pocket. The upshot here is that when you make decisions, you think them through, you are more likely to avoid impulse decisions which are more likely to bring negative consequences.
The external effect is that it, in theory, decreases ambiguity. What you say is what you mean and nothing more. No hidden meanings, no snarky comments, no subtle hints. This has a couple of issues as you need to word what you say a little more carefully so as to not accidentally say more than you wish to mean. Unfortunately, with such careful wording and of habit, people try to find hidden meaning in what you say. Fortunately, this is usually not a problem as generally these false-positive hidden meanings tend to be either implausible (they don't make sense in the context at hand) or irrelevant enough not to matter. But there are a few cases when people read too much into, for instance, a proposition.
There is an additional effect that could be negative, but with enough logic on your side, you can turn any negative part of it positive. Being rigid means being predictable. If practicality and logic are your weapons and whatever you strive towards is your aim, then your actions will be, in one way or another, connected with reaching your aspirations. It does not take a genius to work out that a binary thinker can be used as any other person, but a strictly straight arrow will have a hard time doing anything against being used. Any move can be anticipated using the rules of logic. Fortunately, as you know someone wants you to do something that benefits him and not you, and you know what he expects you to do, according to the same laws of logic, you can go one step further - you know what the other person will do in order to get you to do the thing he wants you to do. A mighty game of psychology, but it works. It is like giving your enemy your communication codes during a war to direct him to insignificant targets and clear the way of his forces so that your main strike team can simply walk in without any opposition. Diversion.
The downside is also evident. Appearing cold and emotionless inherently means people will have a hard time reading your emotions. People won't know if you're interested in the topic or them, unless you explicitly state so. Then again, if you don't state so, people have a tendency to assume quite a bit. These assumptions are also the reason why even when you do state something about your interests, your words will be met with scepticism - did you say that because you meant it or because it is of use to you?
All in all, it is quite clear that being rigid is quite effective and practical. After all, it is what most of us are like online anyways, for others at the very least. If nobody can read your emotions, you are rigid. But it has to be understood that nobody is absolutely completely emotionless, something has to remain. Something that lingers, that influences the person, that makes the person accept certain people as friends, something that makes the person move closer to a few people that he considers special to him. You might not see it, but it is there. And when it shows, it's worth it.
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