Would it surprise you to learn I’d recently spent two weeks swing dancing in a pop-up shanty-town in rural Sweden? That I clock up around thirty miles a week on foot in one of the world’s largest metropolitan conurbations? That I nearly joined a travelling circus school a few years ago? That I’ve given solo vocal performances on stage for six nights a week in front of hundreds of people?
Those sound like pretty good topics for conversations with people.
To a degree. Swing dancing in Sweden is a fairly unusual way to spend your summer holiday.
I think you and I have had exchanges about “optimising for awesomeness” in the past. In some ways, having “awesome” talents or hobbies or experiences is no more relatable than having insular and nerdy ones. It’s just cooler.
What? I’m under the impression that there are a much larger number of people who enjoy hearing me talk about trips around Europe or exams while drunk than about models of ultra-high-energy cosmic ray propagation.
I think we’re talking at crossed purposes here. Relatability isn’t popularity. If I wrestled a Bengal tiger into submission and rode it across the subcontinent, I’m sure a lot of people would want to hear me talk about that. But unless they’d also ridden across India on a subdued tiger, it wouldn’t foster a sense of empathy, kinship or mutual understanding.
Those sound like pretty good topics for conversations with people.
To a degree. Swing dancing in Sweden is a fairly unusual way to spend your summer holiday.
I think you and I have had exchanges about “optimising for awesomeness” in the past. In some ways, having “awesome” talents or hobbies or experiences is no more relatable than having insular and nerdy ones. It’s just cooler.
What? I’m under the impression that there are a much larger number of people who enjoy hearing me talk about trips around Europe or exams while drunk than about models of ultra-high-energy cosmic ray propagation.
I think we’re talking at crossed purposes here. Relatability isn’t popularity. If I wrestled a Bengal tiger into submission and rode it across the subcontinent, I’m sure a lot of people would want to hear me talk about that. But unless they’d also ridden across India on a subdued tiger, it wouldn’t foster a sense of empathy, kinship or mutual understanding.