Eight Changes In Gregory Jordan Peterson's Life

As a child, do you remember hugging your dad around the legs? Or maybe your parents putting treats on the top shelf to avoid their disappearance? Although these might be memories you rarely think back to, they might have more of an influence on your everyday life than you realize. We are all biased in regards to height, whether we think so or not. This may be the reason why Gregory Jordan Peterson has many of the same situations happen to him time after time. Being 6’8 changes Greg’s life in many unexpected ways. While Greg’s height sometimes offers inconvenient challenges, such as unwanted attention, undersized everyday items, and inadequately sized clothing, his height advantages, such as frequent leadership opportunities and increased income, place Greg a cut above the rest.
The first thing that a person comes to learn about Greg (after realizing how big he is) is that he has a lightning fast sense of humor. He uses this to bring lightness into his conversations. After being asked to explain what it’s been like to tower over his peers for the last 22 years, there was an immediate humorous response of all the “tall people trials.” He said, “I guarantee
that I get asked how tall I am everyday, which doesn’t really bother me at all. The pictures that short girls want to take standing next to me get kind of old. But the worst is after someone asks me if I play basketball, which I don’t, so then I get a… ‘you’re such a waste of height’ response. That’s probably the most aggravating thing I deal with, honestly.”
Greg also relayed some measurements that only someone in his height situation would remember. Maybe his degree in engineering is responsible for such detail. “Door frames are supposed to be 6’8, that’s the standard. So with my shoes on I’m just a hair taller than that, so I do a lot of ducking. At my house we have a door that’s 6’4, that one seems to be shrinking or something because I still hit it after all these years.” Greg continues to describe his bed. “Standard length beds are all around 76 inches, the different sizes just determine how wide they are, so being 80 inches since the 8th grade, I’ve learned to just deal with my feet hanging off.” However, probably the most ironic thing about him is his choice in vehicle. “I had to look for a car that had enough headroom for me. It happens that Mini Coopers have a lot of head and legroom, kind of funny. So that’s what I have.” It would seem that all these nuisances would make anyone sick of so much height, but nothing could be more opposite. With the average height of the American man being 5’9, Greg has 11 inches over the competition.
It seems only natural that athletes would see him as a “waste of height,” but the real advantages of size in today’s world are not on the basketball court. “I like being tall,” he said. “If I had to choose a height, I’d probably go with 6’4. I’d still be taller than almost everyone, but wouldn’t have to special order clothes and all that.” Finding 34x38 jeans is no simple task in most department stores. Why do tall people like being tall? Or why do shorter people wish they were taller? When little things like finding pants and reaching the top shelf are taken out of the equation, what seems to be left is an instinctual tendency to trust or respect a taller person compared to people who may be similar in every other
way. An article posted to the Business Insider pulled data from a University of Florida research study in relation to height vs. income. The report states, “One 2004 study found that the taller you are, the more you earn. In fact, according to that study, a person who is 6 feet tall would be predicted to earn nearly $166,000 more over the course of a 30-year career than someone who clocks in at 5 feet 5 inches” (Lebowitz, 2015). At 22 years old, Greg has already experienced positive leadership opportunities because of his height, saying “people will naturally pick me to supervise things or lead groups even if they don’t know anything about me.” The study also explains how animals often submit to larger members of their society because they feel like the larger animal has a better ability to protect and therefore lead the group. Despite the reason, the trend is real. 58% of Fortune 500 companies are headed by a man over 6 feet tall, while the total of men over 6 feet in the US is only 14.5% (Lebowitz, 2015). Although his height may be a nuisance when mattress shopping, Greg has an advantage that few others do. There are challenges that accompany Greg’s extreme height, such as unwanted attention, undersized everyday items, and inadequately sized clothing, which can sometimes be an inconvenience. However, the major height advantages, such as frequent leadership opportunities and increased income, greatly outweigh the smaller inconveniences. If Greg’s personality and good looks don’t get people to notice him, his towering presence might do the trick.