3-13: Am I an NPC?

How Routines Shape Self-Identity

During a conversation at a happy hour recently, the man I was talking with and I both stopped and said, “I have definitely seen you before.” I told him that I had noticed him more than once on my evening walk around the neighborhood, always at about the same hour. As it turns out, he had noticed me on his walk too, and neither of us had ever thought to mention it to anyone. We proceeded to have a funny conversation about whether or not he is an NPC, a non-playable character, as it’s known in video games. This is what a character is called if they say the same things, do the same things, or otherwise don’t really deviate from their usual operations.

Beyond going for a walk every evening at the same hour, to the same places, I thought about what else that someone does or says could be NPC-like. The way in which you introduce yourself to someone for the first time is worth considering. I realized that it very much depends upon the audience. At a happy hour or social setting where each new person I meet could work in any number of fields, I often start by saying that I work in finance. Then I tailor the extent to which I elaborate from there based on their knowledge of, or interest in, finance. At a conference, on the other hand, I’m likely to jump right into what I do in much more specific terms, explaining that I manage portfolios investing in corporate bonds primarily collateralized by commercial aircraft.

In continuing this analysis, I then thought that my initial conversation with someone could be at least partially explained via a dialogue tree, or an if-then programmed algorithm. Very simply put, if I don’t know what this person does, then say I work in finance. If I am very confident that I know this person works in finance, I feel free to explain my work in greater detail. This tree-branching consideration has me again thinking what if I am an NPC, just with a large table of variable answers?

I then began thinking about how often we repeat the same lines, and how that repetition influences the persona of the person saying them. When I tell every new person I meet the same key things about me, it reinforces the extent to which my identity is tied to those things. Each time you introduce yourself, you are making a small commitment to yourself to keep being that person.

The man from the happy hour and I will most likely pass each other on our walks again within the next week, at the usual hour and on the same side of the street. I’m still deciding what the right amount of consistency in my life is. If walking on the other side of the street, or leaving for my evening stroll a half hour later than usual is the only agency I have, then I’ll take that. I’d ask what in your life is eerily consistent, and what choices you have to prove it is still a choice.