173 - Social Calibration and the real John Blackthorn

We’re all built to tune our social antenna whenever we enter a new tribe, but what makes some people so darn good at it?

Today’s discussion is all about Social Calibration, the secret “sorting hat” of society. Calibration is something we all do subconsciously from birth, so unless someone is incredible at it we’re generally not impressed by it. However, we’ll outline the benefits of social calibration, such as building better relationships, gaining more opportunities, and being able to communicate effectively with people from diverse backgrounds. We’ll also talk about why calibration is such an overlooked skill, and how it invisibly sorts us all into higher or lower earring careers, higher or lower social stratas, or different education systems.

We’ll also talk about the inspiration for the character John Blackthorn from Shogun, whose real name was William Adams. We’ll discuss how Adams lost a brother who wasn’t able to “calibrate” during his dealings with foreigners, and paid with his life. Then we’ll compare Adams/Blackthorn to the Portuguese missionaries who arrived in Japan years before him, and take a closer look at why Adams’ method of calibration won him serious riches and titles. Then we’ll spoil the next two seasons of Shogun (which have not yet been written by the studio) but will ostensibly follow the real-life successes of William Adams as he integrates himself deeper into Japanese culture.

History Links:

https://www.britannica.com/biography/William-Adams

https://www.williamadams.fr/the-life-of-william-adams/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssyXe9SuZcA&ab_channel=HistoryLeaks

Science Links:

https://www.psychology-lexicon.com/cms/glossary/36-glossary-c/22804-calibration.html

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0191886921008618