Keen insights are what I’m looking for.
I want to know what I don’t know in a useful way.
A new way to pull a nail, thread a needle, boil water.
If it’s new and insightful, sign me up.
What I’m not looking for?
I read somewhere that there are ten people in the world, so I googled ‘ten people in the world’ to find the quote.
In my search I wanted to find something about The Listener, The Explainer, The Mom, The Dad, The Kid, The Coach, The Teacher, and three more.
What I got instead?
A population list, ten richest people, ten wealthiest people, ten most populated nations, and something about believers.
Also something about counting to ten in binary.
None of it on the first page had what I wanted to find.
Page Two?
From Reddit:
There are 10 types of people in this world: Those who know binary, those who don’t, and those who didn’t expect this to be in base 3.
There are two kinds of people in this world: Those who can extrapolate from incomplete data
There are 10 kinds of people in the world: those who understand hexadecimal and f the rest.
None of it qualifies as keen insights.
Generalization For The Lucky
There are two types of people in the world, those who believe there are two types, and those who don’t.
I’m guessing there might be two types for real.
Those who are nice until it’s time for a change, and those who just like change for the sake of change.
Why not be nice for the sake of nice?
Overheard recently:
My friends are so nice all the time, painfully nice, and they make me suspicious.
Why are they always so nice?
The answer: You don’t know them as well as you think.
One of my favorite guys, a bestie, was sitting alone at a ballgame.
I yelled at him to come over and sit with my group, which consisted of my wife and I. It’s a big group of two.
He told me to come over to his side, which made me chuckle to myself.
We didn’t know each other except in passing.
With his response he told me he was not some lonely guy burning time because he had no place else to go.
He was there to watch a ballgame, not avoid going home.
In a short time we got better aquatinted and he said, “I don’t hire my friends.”
It was out of the blue, which took the pressure off.
I wasn’t a hustler and he wasn’t a mark.
The keen insights I learned from him was that people display the culture they were raised in.
Keen Insights Into The Culture I Was Raised In
My Dad and Mom grew up in a logging town, a company town with company houses and a company store.
I asked him which town was tougher, his or mine.
He said mine because his had loggers fighting each other on Saturday nights while mine had loggers, fishermen, and mill workers slugging it out.
North Bend rules.
I met a classmate who lived in Seattle who he said he told people he was from Coos Bay because it drew more respect for toughness.
So the culture I grew up in valued toughness, hard work, and minding your own business.
Not a bad combination to move forward with.
It got harder when the hardest sport, wrestling, was the best team in the high school year after year.
I was a basketball player on teams from fourth grade to freshman year before I showed up in the wrestling room sophomore year.
Thew notion was anyone who started so late would never rise. I didn’t care, I just wanted to be on a winning team to see what it felt like.
It felt good.
My parents had goals which included owning a house and raising a family.
Their goals for their kids was for them to go to college and get good jobs.
Education was important to them. That’s what separated my folks from the company town they were raised in.
They valued education and wanted their kids to be smart.
I started college at eighteen in a dorm and finished at thirty-nine with a house, wife, and two kids.
It was a long haul that I ignored until I got married. Dating a dropout is one thing, marrying one is another.
As The Years Pass By, Whoop It Up
If you’re not having fun, you’re not paying attention.
Not that having fun is the ultimate goal, but why not participate in someone else’s fun even if you’re a sour puss.
It’s taken me a long time to understand the importance of being present, of showing up.
I had a birthday, which I expected to be a nice quiet time with the Special Plate.
Instead, there was a plan, a surprise plan.
In the past I’ve walked around and seen happy gatherings through windows.
It made me happy, too.
This time I was inside with the happy group, and it was as sweet a time as I can remember.
My wife organized it, I think.
My people showed up, which was stunning.
Sometimes things work out better than expected.
That was one of those times.
About David Gillaspie
