The axis of cool.

Where do you fit on the axis of cool? If you fall in the green area, congratulations! You're cool! If you fall into one of the blue areas, then ouch, I'm sorry. You may want to consider the possibility that you are annoying.



If you click on the image, it will take you to a larger version, which you could print out if you were so inclined. Don't be too quick to choose a quadrant for yourself, though. And don't forget the cardinal rule: if you assume that you're cool, chances are, you're a tool. Most people belong in the white space on the left. Of course, if you are reading this blog, then you are probably more clever and thoughtful than the general population, and thus, you may very well belong on the right side of the graph.

I'm sure you noticed that the green area skews toward the Chill/Subdued + Unique/Interesting corner. This obviously reflects my personal bias, and you are free to disagree with me. If you are in high school, for example, I would not surprised if you perceive coolness as being closer to the Trendy/Conformist + Intense/Obnoxious corner. If that is the case, you'll probably outgrow it. You may also notice that cool comes very close to annoying in certain areas of the graph. This is intentional, and reflects my opinion that in order to be cool, one must be willing to risk being uncool. Those who fear the possibility of being uncool are likely to cling to the relative safety of the left side of the graph, which is fine, but drastically limits their potential for coolness.

I plan to pursue this concept further in future posts, so if you have any suggestions for tweaking the graph or for things/people to plot, please leave them in the comments!