The Nonlinear Library LW - You can just spontaneously call people you haven't met in years by lc
Nov 13, 2023
01:19
Welcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: You can just spontaneously call people you haven't met in years, published by lc on November 13, 2023 on LessWrong.
Here's a recent conversation I had with a friend:
Me: "I wish I had more friends. You guys are great, but I only get to hang out with you like once or twice a week. It's painful being holed up in my house the entire rest of the time."
Friend: "You know ${X}. You could talk to him."
Me: "I haven't talked to ${X} since 2019."
Friend: "Why does that matter? Just call him."
Me: "What do you mean 'just call him'? I can't do that."
Friend: "Yes you can"
Me:
Later: I call ${X}, we talk for an hour and a half, and we meet up that week.
This required zero pretext. I just dialed the phone number and then said something like "Hey ${X}, how you doing? Wanted to talk to you, it's been a while." It turns out this is a perfectly valid reason to phone someone, and most people are happy to learn that you have remembered or thought about them at all.
Further, I realized upon reflection that the degrees of the people I know seem related to their inclination to do things like this.
Thanks for listening. To help us out with The Nonlinear Library or to learn more, please visit nonlinear.org
Here's a recent conversation I had with a friend:
Me: "I wish I had more friends. You guys are great, but I only get to hang out with you like once or twice a week. It's painful being holed up in my house the entire rest of the time."
Friend: "You know ${X}. You could talk to him."
Me: "I haven't talked to ${X} since 2019."
Friend: "Why does that matter? Just call him."
Me: "What do you mean 'just call him'? I can't do that."
Friend: "Yes you can"
Me:
Later: I call ${X}, we talk for an hour and a half, and we meet up that week.
This required zero pretext. I just dialed the phone number and then said something like "Hey ${X}, how you doing? Wanted to talk to you, it's been a while." It turns out this is a perfectly valid reason to phone someone, and most people are happy to learn that you have remembered or thought about them at all.
Further, I realized upon reflection that the degrees of the people I know seem related to their inclination to do things like this.
Thanks for listening. To help us out with The Nonlinear Library or to learn more, please visit nonlinear.org