I don't get it, except I do

[anotheranon]

I used to think that I didn't read people that well. Couldn't figure out their intentions, motivations, non-verbal subtext. This has caused me all manner of paranoia and caution since childhood.

I'm slowly realizing that I read people better than I thought I did, I just get fed up with what I see.

Emotional reasoning.

Everyone (including me) engages in it to some degree, - I do understand that. What I can't get my head around is the determination of some to cling so fiercely to ideas and things that fly in the face of all evidence to the contrary. Presented with "here are the facts, now let's act upon them", logical progression keeps stumbling on the altogether human but annoying need to have their little biases and moods catered to instead of getting on with it.

It's one of the big reasons I've never tried that hard to move into management (because that seems the only "up" that there is to move into in IT/communications): I see the job of managers as doing a lot of hand-holding and ego massaging, where I just want to be pointed at something and go already.

Why, WHY can't people set down their need to be right/good/big/bad/whatever and do what needs to be done? THIS is what I can't read about people.

Mind, I'm venting with the full knowledge that I do the same shit, though I hope that I'm big enough to admit when I'm wrong and realize that sometimes "like" and "want" don't enter into it.

Comments

[dustdaughter.livejournal.com]

I just want to be pointed at something and go already.

Why, WHY can't people set down their need to be right/good/big/bad/whatever and do what needs to be done? THIS is what I can't read about people.

Oh goodness, me either. I want to do interesting work and feel like I've accomplished something when I go home. I just figure that many people don't come to work to actually work. They've wrapped too many other things into their job that really have nothing to do with the tasks/responsibilities at hand.

[jlsjlsjls.livejournal.com]

Amen. I get more stressed by not accomplishing things at work (and by other people who have no drive to accomplish things at work) than I do when I'm overloaded ... as long as something's getting DONE I'm fine.

Mebbe the three of us should form a company of our own, with the #1 rule being no unnecessary meetings or phone calls. ;p

Re the other bit, about reading people ... I suspect that's one of the personality quirks that gets us introvert-types labeled "shy." I know that I've often been in situations where there's just nobody worth talking to, and I've never seen the point of pretending to find somebody interesting when they're actually making my teeth go numb, just for the sake of being "social" ... why lie to them?. The price we pay just 'cause we instinctively know our finite time on the planet is too valuable to be wasted on the dull and exasperating ...

[jlsjlsjls.livejournal.com]

Please take a cataloguing course, emigrate to Canada, and come work for me! PLEASE! All the interesting you can eat, organize your tasks/projects as you please as long as they get done, and the work is best accomplished with headphones on and little interacting with other people except at coffee and lunch (and then only if one wants to)

[dustdaughter.livejournal.com]

I wish I could but familial obligations mean staying here!

[anotheranon.livejournal.com]

They've wrapped too many other things into their job that really have nothing to do with the tasks/responsibilities at hand.

Yes! Nail on head! My current office has little of this silliness flying around, but I've been in workplaces in the past where attitude and "fiefdom building" were rife. And I can deal with it as long as there's a manager buffer between me and it and it doesn't bring everything to a standstill, but it still grates.

[anotheranon.livejournal.com]

I know that I've often been in situations where there's just nobody worth talking to, and I've never seen the point of pretending to find somebody interesting when they're actually making my teeth go numb, just for the sake of being "social" ... why lie to them?. The price we pay just 'cause we instinctively know our finite time on the planet is too valuable to be wasted on the dull and exasperating ...

I do kinda get this. For me what staggers me most though is when I find myself in conversation with someone who is dogmatic or worked up about something that I perceive as not being something worth investing with so much drama. Why they can't drop it I cannot figure out.

[semmie17.livejournal.com]

For me what staggers me most though is when I find myself in conversation with someone who is dogmatic or worked up about something that I perceive as not being something worth investing with so much drama. Why they can't drop it I cannot figure out.

That's when I start to laugh at people. Usually in their faces.

. . .

Insensitive? Yes. But also... FUUuuuUUUN.

[jlsjlsjls.livejournal.com]

Well, I had to try ...

[jlsjlsjls.livejournal.com]

Because it's all they have? :-(