I just caught myself talking about how the weather affected my commute! I can't stadn this. Who am I turning into? I'm not that guy! I love the weather, wether it affects my commute or not! I don't talk about my commute at work. I don't talk about my weekends at work. I don't talk abuot anything at work.
I'm not going to cave. Sharing with coworkers is admitting you'll be here for a while, that you value their input, opinions, or them as people. I am not the guy that gives that impression. I don't want to hear about your dog, or your weekend, I don't want to hear "Oh, I like to ski." No, I'm the guy that will patiently listen to you talk about your dog, or your weekend, and use my breain to udnerstand. Like when you say "I took a big fall on a black diamond early in the day and my shoulder still hurts." You know what? I'm intelligent enough to know that means you were skiing, and that you are good enought to ski black diamond trails, and that you'r tough enough that one little fall won't ruin your day. And then maybe you earn a little respect, for being tough, but more for not treating this like a conversation you'd have with a two-year old. "Yes, I went skiing. Skiing is where you put long skis on your feet and slide down a big snow-covered mountain. Would you like another cookie?" Argh.
I'm not asking for you to be my friends. In fact, I'm specifically asking you not to act like that's what we're all trying to do. If you're cool enough to be my friend, then it'll happen. So cool it. And if you're not, then I'm going to resent you talking to me wether you're pretending or not pretending. And in the meantime all I'm expecting is that you do the work assigned to you efficiently and correctly, and try to remember that you too are an intelligent person, who graduated with a college degree, and that means you are smart enough to realize when you don't know how to solve a problem. When that happens ask for help.
I don't want to hear about your commute. I don't want to hear about the weather. I don't want to hear about how much you hate your job, or how much I should hate mine. If you'd like to kill some time by chatting about music, or movies, or the latest 60 Minutes expose then by all means go ahead, most of the time I'll play along. If you want to ditch the boring make no ripples approach, then I salute you and welcome real conversation about real things, and not the crap reality tv you watch and then recite every single day to the rest of the group, who, I assure you, hates it just as much as I do. Where are the conversations we had in college? The guys trying to outdo and impress each other "oh, but this one party I was at, they were lighting people on fire, man it was so cool..." or the deep intellectual (psuedo-intellectual?) discussions about literature (that's books, I mean good books) not the latest Da Vinci code that you're reading only because "I've heard everyone else read it" Honestly. I'm not saying don't read it, I'm saying pick up Charles Dickens too. Now especially, it's the holidays for crying out loud. Or, even better, you could admit to something that might make you seem a little strange. "I like to read, but my favorite is comic books, like Hellboy, or Alan Moore." Heaven forbid you should turn out to have a personality, likes, dislikes, interests outside the main demographic's. That's why when you asked me what kind of beer I drink I asked for a qualifier, dark, light, imported, etc not because I drink a lot, but because I have preferences, and I'm not going to just answer "yeah, I like budweiser." and then drop my head back down. I'm perfectly willing to give you an honest answer. It's your job to handle it.
one rant at a time
-Tom
recommended downloads:
anything with a high-energy electric guitar
Queen, Bohemian Rhapsody
Counting Crows, Angels Of The Silences
Guns N' Roses, Sweet Child Of Mine, or Paradise City
AC/DC, For Those About To Rock, or It's A Long Way To The Top (ok, the last one's got an energetic bagpipe solo, but that's gotta be at least as good as an electric guitar.)
2 comments:
I think I was a little upset during that post, also I hurt my shoulder snowboarding and now I can't move my arm well at all. Combined with the awkward position I sit in, slouched down in my "designed to be ergonomically perfect" chair I can't reach the keyboard like I used to, when I had two good arms. Please forgive the spelling mistakes. Or don't forgive them and post a comment taunting me about how a math major can't spell or tell time.
Thanks a bunch. -t
haha math majors can't spell.
jk,
i actually had this funny conversation with this guy dave hirsch. he was a math major at northeastern. we were at sharon applebaum's house and we were talking about how your undergrad major is a great pick up line (she is 25 and was talking about how this undergrad was picking her up with his major at a bar at noon after her last law exam). like it's cool to say, "yeah i was a poli sci major" or "yeah i was a classics major" and dave said "yeah my math major didn't really make me more attractive to women. so when girls ask me what my major is i say, 'yeah comm sci you?' to give myself a fighting chance." and i thought of you and donny and laughed. in dave hirsh's defense, he was very cute and all the law school girls want him.
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