more people
all my life i've only been friendly with people i like, people who are normal. once i get a whiff of something that is wrong with a person, i almost instantly distance myself from them.
as a result, i really had no clue how abnormal some people can be.
at work, there's not much of a choice. conditions dictate that i spend large amounts of time with people whom i would normally distance myself from. i am genuinely surprised at how abnormal they can be.
i think one of the strangest things is when a person allows one facet of a normal person's being to completely take over his entire self, such that almost everything he says and does is linked to this.
imagine a person whose main purpose in life is to be rich. all his thoughts, words, and actions are focused around making himself rich.
this person in question (different from the one in the previous post), it seems to me that his entire existence is focused around his sense of individuality.
he has a constant need to differentiate himself from the rest, to let everyone know that he is special and 'this is the way i am' while at the same time showing a startling inability to comprehend that the world includes many things outside of his own experiences.
even in the most mundane of conversations, i often notice him interjecting and declaring himself to be the opposite of whatever was in the discussion.
for example we were saying that in general, everyone would take breaks during working hours as it would be quite impossible to be working literally all the time. then this guy suddenly says "i'm not like that. i don't like to take breaks during work. i like to work a lot, i can even do OT everyday. that's the way i am."
as for his inability to comprehend the world outside of his own experiences, just recently he popped out with something so shocking that really cemented this opinion of him.
my colleague was saying that there are some poor families that really have ZERO savings, such that whatever income they earn in that month is immediately spent on their daily necessities or for whatever unfortunate circumstances they have found themselves in, like medical bills etc.
"that's impossible!" he said. "everyone will surely have some savings no matter what."
my colleague tried explaining: "sometimes people really earn the bare minimum required for them to survive, how are they going to save any money? for example if you have a baby, certain expenses will come with it, or if he falls sick you have to spend more money on medical fees."
"oh then it's their own fault, if they're poor then they shouldn't have children. it's all about proper planning."
my colleague was still hopeful: "yes, but many things in life cannot be planned, like what if you suddenly lose your job? you have no income but the daily expenses remain."
"no no that's impossible," he said, "everything can be planned, it just depends on whether they want to do it. if my father could save $250,000 for each of his 3 children's education, i don't see why they cannot plan ahead."
i sat there in silence, and silence enveloped us soon after his last statement.
as a result, i really had no clue how abnormal some people can be.
at work, there's not much of a choice. conditions dictate that i spend large amounts of time with people whom i would normally distance myself from. i am genuinely surprised at how abnormal they can be.
i think one of the strangest things is when a person allows one facet of a normal person's being to completely take over his entire self, such that almost everything he says and does is linked to this.
imagine a person whose main purpose in life is to be rich. all his thoughts, words, and actions are focused around making himself rich.
this person in question (different from the one in the previous post), it seems to me that his entire existence is focused around his sense of individuality.
he has a constant need to differentiate himself from the rest, to let everyone know that he is special and 'this is the way i am' while at the same time showing a startling inability to comprehend that the world includes many things outside of his own experiences.
even in the most mundane of conversations, i often notice him interjecting and declaring himself to be the opposite of whatever was in the discussion.
for example we were saying that in general, everyone would take breaks during working hours as it would be quite impossible to be working literally all the time. then this guy suddenly says "i'm not like that. i don't like to take breaks during work. i like to work a lot, i can even do OT everyday. that's the way i am."
as for his inability to comprehend the world outside of his own experiences, just recently he popped out with something so shocking that really cemented this opinion of him.
my colleague was saying that there are some poor families that really have ZERO savings, such that whatever income they earn in that month is immediately spent on their daily necessities or for whatever unfortunate circumstances they have found themselves in, like medical bills etc.
"that's impossible!" he said. "everyone will surely have some savings no matter what."
my colleague tried explaining: "sometimes people really earn the bare minimum required for them to survive, how are they going to save any money? for example if you have a baby, certain expenses will come with it, or if he falls sick you have to spend more money on medical fees."
"oh then it's their own fault, if they're poor then they shouldn't have children. it's all about proper planning."
my colleague was still hopeful: "yes, but many things in life cannot be planned, like what if you suddenly lose your job? you have no income but the daily expenses remain."
"no no that's impossible," he said, "everything can be planned, it just depends on whether they want to do it. if my father could save $250,000 for each of his 3 children's education, i don't see why they cannot plan ahead."
i sat there in silence, and silence enveloped us soon after his last statement.