Klosterman Group

1. Klosterman talks about how he'd prefer to ask questions rather than answer questions. Answering questions requires that a person be somewhat engaged with their own thoughts and sort of "know them selves." Asking is much easier because one can avoid being misunderstood. With respect identity, talking is a portrayal of oneself (accurate or not).

2. Why do people feel compelled to answer questions in the first place?

3. Basically, people talk just to talk. Morris mentions that if people are expected to talk, they do. It is exactly as Klosterman says, "something instead of nothing."

4. To an extent, you can trust an interviewee and to some extent you can't. Morris says that self-deception makes the world go round. People are generally going to try and put out what they think is true even if it is not. They create a narrative that they honestly believe in and therefore the interviewee is being dishonest with themselves first and then the rest of us as a consequence. People are constantly giving their view and position on the world and from another perspective the world appears very different. So this is why we are not usually the best informants of ourselves because we can easily deceive our self. At the same time other people will see the version of you they want.

5. Klosterman says that when interviewed people want to do two things: say something interesting and be perceived in the way that will be likable. Morris and Klosterman claim however that rarely can the both of these be accomplished, usually one is accomplished at the sacrifice of the other. Being interviewed allows the interviewee to become misunderstood and misrepresented. So if people were truly reasonable, they would indeed avoid interviews and avoid this dilemma altogether.