Mike Harris or Bob Rae?
What’s your favorite video game?
What’s your favorite movie?
What’s your favorite book?
If they say Call of Duty, Atlas Shrugged and Catcher in the Rye: They will never be my friend.
I know a few who would answer skyrim, avengers and ???. They’re kinda nice but also insanely lame and boring.
most of my questions would be subjective and may not apply to others:
- what kinds of plants have survived you taking care of them? how?
- paracetamol, ibuprofen, naproxen or NSAID? why?
- what’s your funny youtube link you are comfortable to share? what makes it amusing?
Ibuprofen and naproxen are both NSAIDs, though?
loool, good answer!
Trick question
- What is your name?
- What is your quest?
- What is the air-speed velocity of an unladen swallow?
What is your favorite color?
The nice thing about using that Monty Python quote is that if I don’t like the answer, I can then mime throwing myself into a chasm, and thus extricate myself from the situation.
What do you mean? An african or european swallow?
[Queue screaming]
What’s the average rainfall in the Amazon basin?
I need to know whether they like animals.
What is your favorite deck
What is your favorite joker
What is your favorite spectral card
Enterprise D - I like the carpet.
Heath Ledger.
Immolate - I’m not a destroyer, but $20 is $20.
Just be interested and ask them questions about their life and hobbies and see if they do the same.
It’s a starting place. The rest depends on building trust and respect and common interests.
The one I thought of was actually “What do you think about astrology?”
The answer I am looking for is neither that they believe or don’t believe it, I want to hear something between. Something like
“It’s fun! I love seeing the connections between people born with similar birthdays and stuff, and honestly it does seem accurate sometimes. But also I don’t live by it! What about you?”
This open, honest way of communicating is what’s important. Didn’t knock the idea down or support it 100%, just approached with an open mind.
My answer would be something along the lines of: I think astrology is vague enough to apply pretty generally, but the interesting thing about it is seeing people’s reactions. It’s a social placebo, and we can see how different people read into the same thing. “A new experience awaits you, Aries” and we see one person anticipating a raise a work, and thus behaving more confidently and getting it, while another is expecting divorce papers, and their behavior is helping them to reach that goal, too.
Pretty fair view on astrology! I have some friends/family members who have very close birthdays and it’s actually remarkable how similar they are in certain ways. I feel like I typically see the similarities in the way they handle things like relationships, power dynamics, confidence, and they sort of thing.
For example I know many Geminis, and one pattern I’ve noticed is that they are all passive aggressive types. Like they won’t tell you about a problem until it’s too late, and then they will boil over and you’ll end up in a fight about something that could have been resolved so much easier.
Could that be confirmation bias on my part? Definitely. But still it’s a fun tool for introspection if you don’t take it too far :) I also like to think of the history behind it and how humans developed it in such a human way just from observations.
Sometimes knocking an idea down is justified, especially in the case of astrology.
Why? I don’t see how astrology hurts anybody (unless people take it to extremes, like not dating someone because of their signs or something like that.)
Having an open mind is great and all, but once you’ve gathered enough information to take a position you’re not obligated to coddle those who remain willfully ignorant. I’ve personally never found astrology “fun,” it’s stupid woo that encourages people to adopt other stupid woo. At a time when anti-intellectualism is being institutionalized into government policy (in the US at least,) I don’t see how anyone in good faith can actively encourage that.
I don’t take astrology that seriously, it’s more of a conversation starter or a tool for introspection. Sometimes I see things about my birthdate that help me notice new things about myself, and sometimes it just seems made up.
Connecting astrology to anti-intellectualism is a pretty big reach in my opinion. I don’t think the ideas of astrology, religion, magic, etc should be applied to policy that impacts anybody else.
But, magical thinking can creep into policy, often with disastrous results.
A more solid footing can be achieved by consulting science educators, for perspective about our place in the universe.
I see your point - but there’s always going to be questions science can’t answer because science is based only on what we can observe and measure.
A big one is “where did everything come from”
So I don’t see a way of avoiding magical or spiritual thinking - it’s likely more important to separate that from fact when making decisions that effect more than just you :)
That’s not how you make friends.
ikr
This is an interview🗿
Census-based friendship 😂
Yeah I know not to just come out asking them these three questions. I just had the thought of what kind of questions you could ask to quickly and greatly understand the kind of person in front of you.
Actions speak louder than words. How about three questions to ask yourself?
- Do I feel better when I have been with them?
- Do they respect me?
- Do I respect them?
I recently asked myself similar questions about two friends I knew for about 15 years. I thought I had been close with them, but I quickly answered No to all of them (plus a bunch of follow-ups I asked myself), and realized they were never real friends, or at least hadn’t been for a while, they were just people who were accustomed to seeing me and sometimes making plans together.
I always felt anxious after hanging out with them, never felt like they listened to or cared about anything I said, never remembered my preferences or things about my personal life from visit to visit, never believed me when I said I knew something, etc etc. It’s easy to get used to this kind of thing and to think it’s normal and healthy, but it was so exhausting and frustrating for me that I finally gave up and haven’t talked to them in over a year.
Sometimes these types of questions are super helpful in evaluating longstanding relationships as well as new ones.
But that very impulse is inimical to making friends. You make friends by being open to making friends, and by being interested in other people, regardless of whether they are ‘friend material.’
You shouldn’t even be assuming you know or can predict what makes someone friend material for you. One can be surprised.
What era would you rather have been born in?
Why is there a watermelon there?
Subs or dubs?
What’s your religion if any? What’s your political views if any? And what’s your top three hobbies? :)
My dad, when I was a kid, used to open the door quickly, look down at my visiting friend and say “Who the hell are you?”
Then he’d shut the door abruptly, wait 3-4 seconds, then open it, laugh, and welcome them in.
If you can do that and they don’t get offended, they’re friend material.
Wide implementation of this technique would certainly explain why anxious/nervous people would have fewer friends.
no.
My dad, when I was a kid, used to open the door quickly, look down at my visiting friend and say “Who the hell are you?”
Sad story time.
A friend of mine was visiting one of our mutual friends nearby in the big city while I was in the far, far outskirts. He was such a positive influence that I agreed to come visit at the same time and catch up, as he was always a great time. This excellent friend always brought a gallon of stories, his usual infectious manner, and this time he brought a surprise new girlfriend.
I did the “who the hell are you” and she got put off. It went reeeally poorly. They left for home the next day, ahead of schedule, back to America. He shut me out. Over the years he kinda shut everyone else there out, too, as far as I know, as he focused on the birth of two kids in succession and then his wife’s affliction with an aggressive debilitating disease; it may have been ALS. He shut a lot of ancillary things and people out, and I get that of course, but I am disappointed that my last interaction was a bombed joke.
It’s been 18 years. I finally booted him from my social media about 7-8 years ago.
- hey, my name is _____, what’s yours?
- are you looking for new friends?
- great I do _____ on ______ days, would you like to join?
This is great. But how do you deal with people that you’ve invited to an event that’s public, and you didn’t gel with them?
you didn’t gel with them?
Then you don’t become friends with them. If you really want to, just make small talk and be acquaintances.
What’s your favorite rock?
What is the strangest food you’ve ever tried?
What kind of nerd are you?
I’d say Hard Rock or Llanite.
Octopus rolls at a sushi bar. I wasn’t a fan of it. It’s too chewy for me.
I’m a well rounded nerd IMO. I’m into video games of all kinds, movies, TV shows and lore from Warhammer 40k.
How about yourself?
lore from Warhammer 40k.
We are the Hammer
My only question is “What are the four essential freedoms of free software?”. If they can list them I know they’re alright
- Free as a bird, and this bird you cannot change
- Free to do what I want, any old time
- Free ride, take it easy
- Ok I ran out of songs now. Free as in
malloc?
Close enough, you’re cool. Here’s the actual list though (wiki link):
- Freedom 0: The freedom to use the program for any purpose.
- Freedom 1: The freedom to study how the program works, and change it to make it do what you wish.
- Freedom 2: The freedom to redistribute and make copies so you can help your neighbor.
- Freedom 3: The freedom to improve the program, and release your improvements (and modified versions in general) to the public, so that the whole community benefits.
Hehe, I was just poking fun. I love FOSS and don’t disagree intellectually with this stuff, but the way it’s presented is a little off-putting to me. A bit too dogmatic for me.
- Free
- Open
- Source
- Software
