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Talking to strangers at the gym

thienantran.com

441–450 of 810 posts

Re: Talking to strangers at the gym

#441
post #420

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Mature, cultured people will say thank you and think "what a nuisance" The world is a mirror, forever reflecting what you are doing within yourself.

I hope you enjoyed the hormonal reward you got when you copy-pasted that amazingly deep proverb. Let's expand on it a bit. Is the world a mirror to street salespeople? Is the world a mirror to stalkers? To sociopaths?

> amazingly deep proverb

You misunderstand. You can't claim to speak for all "mature" & "cultured" people. That is, who gets to judge those who don't conform to one specific observed / inferred worldview, aren't "cultured" or "mature" enough? (if it wasn't clear, this question isn't an invitation to debate).

> Let's expand on it a bit. Is the world a mirror to street salespeople? Is the world a mirror to stalkers? To sociopaths?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loaded_question

Re: Talking to strangers at the gym

#442

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s a depressingly negative way to view people who are just trying to break the isolation of modern life.

[flagged]

Village life isnt for everyone but what you’re describing here isn’t even remotely the same thing as the discussion we’re having about being friendly towards strangers.

If you need to introduce yourself, then you clearly don’t live in a village where everyone knows your name. ;)

Re: Talking to strangers at the gym

#443
post #27

Around 15 years ago I took on the challenge to start a conversation with random people to break through this barrier and train this muscle. What I started with was to chit chat with those I had already established an interaction. For example at the Starbucks I would say something to barista. Those interactions were short but broke the ice. Later I went for random people in the street and that was quite awkward. There…

I'm not saying this is you, but i've also ran into a lot of those people, almost always men, often in their late 30s or 40s, going around talking to everyone cracking jokes and thinking they're the live of the party, while everyone else is just silently annoyed by them.

[deleted]

Re: Talking to strangers at the gym

#444

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "if you want other people to care about you and your desires, you need to care about them and theirs and SHOW them that this is the case: here's how." Isn't this highly manipulative?

I take your point, but aren't most social interactions technically manipulative through this lens? If you wear nice clothes and exercise, then are you just trying to manipulate people into thinking you have taste and are attractive? If you work hard at your job and are responsive to your boss's requests, then are you just manipulating them into thinking you're a good worker and giving you a raise? These tools can cer…

[dead]

Re: Talking to strangers at the gym

#446

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Village life isnt for everyone but what you’re describing here isn’t even remotely the same thing as the discussion we’re having about being friendly towards strangers. If you need to introduce yourself, then you clearly don’t live in a village where everyone knows your name. ;)

I was just pointing out what the pre-modern life was like.

Re: Talking to strangers at the gym

#447

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really don't know what to say, that was such an odd/funny take... I have a house and stuff, and still go to the gym at 5:30 every morning, as a supplement to my running and cycling. I guess my cycling is an artificial substitute for riding a horse? ;)

It's an artificial substitute for riding to work or to the supermarket etc.

Why would I ride when I can walk to both. ;)

Re: Talking to strangers at the gym

#450

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hah. I'm ADHD and I used to be terrible about remembering people's names -- like, their names didn't even register and I couldn't tell you what it was 30 seconds later. It wasn't that I didn't care about the person, it was just that their name would never stick. Anyway, I finally made enough people feel bad and embarrassed myself enough that I started compensating and made a point to remember basically everybody's na…

A trick I learned is to picture their name written across their forehead (visualize each letter). It works pretty well.

Imaginary VR
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