One of my hot takes is that you can learn from anyone - they don't have to be smarter, more knowledgable or more skilled than you. Some of my most profound lessons have come as a result of hanging out with someone and reflecting on how monumentally stupid they can be. As a simple example - I never want to be the guy who is telling everyone else how to fix their lives while his kitchen sink is full of dirty dishes and rotting food.

Once or twice a year I'll get sucked into a week of gaming, usually RTS or turn-based strategy. It makes me feel quite guilty tbh, so I spend a lot of energy looking for the lesson in it. What is it teaching me about how to live my life more effectively. Can I use the game's mechanics and goals as analogies for my own? Can I use the stages of gameplay to better understand my own stage in work or life?

Recently I was even reflecting on my experiences making reddit posts. In my industry there are places online where people seek services, and those posts are always swamped with offers from providers. How can I possibly compete when, unless I am responding instantly, I'm always number 10 or 15 to reply? Well what I've learned on reddit is that it simply isn't worth competing in someone's inbox. The best approach is to put effort into making a compelling post, and then wait for the people who like it to message me. Absolutely, posting on reddit has helped me acquire transferrable skills.

In fact, and this is going to sound a bit woo-woo, but I actually think that it is an interesting experiment to ask a question, any question, and then interpret the things you see, hear etc as symbolic answers. I mean, in some way I think this is like an atheistic, psychoanalytic version of prayer. For example, I ask the question of "will this post lead to meeting someone cool?" The answer I get looking around me is that it damn well better, because I'm sitting in my bedroom, and I'm sure as hell not going to meet anyone cool while I'm sitting here. Look how the window I can see from where I sit is high up and occluded by cobwebs. That's a metaphor for how removed I am sometimes from the outside world. I will go out today, I have a friend to meet and then some volunteering commitments this evening. But it's such a nice day, I thought I'd make a post before I go out and see what happens. (This exercise is way more interesting when out for a walk, rather than sitting at a computer!)

So not only can you learn from an ignoramus (even when the ignoramus is yourself), but you can typically answer your own burning questions if you have the audacity to try.

Communication can also be subtle, for example, when I'm walking up behind someone I might drag my foot on the ground for one step to tell them I'm coming. Or when someone is acting funny, there can be that half-second of extra eye contact to say "I see you".

Sometimes there is no real distinction between subtle communication and abstract lessons - for example if someone messages me and for the first 5 messages they send there are no more than 3 words max in a message and no questions, this may or may not be an attempt at subtle communication on their part, but I have learned from my time in the cosmos that this person is probably bored more than interested. They opened the fridge enough times and finally decided that I looked appealing enough... but I'm not what they're looking for.

What is the subtle communication in my posts? Well there are probably many. Firstly, I clearly enjoy writing. I would hope that somewhere up there is the appearance of someone who is mature and emotionally intelligent. Looking at my nsfw posts on r/dirtypenpals people probably risk drawing all sorts of conclusions about my attitudes towards women - I just hope they take the context into consideration.

I think there is probably also a mix of confidence and insecurity that one could read into my posts - an arrogance that I am a bit of a catch, mixed with the humility that comes when you've had one date in the past 12 months.

I suppose if you've read this far, you might be wondering "why did you make me read all of this, what are you looking for?"

I want to talk with more people, to learn from different perspectives. I even have the audacity to hope that you might find my posts interesting and be curious to learn more about me. Maybe I'll be curious about you too. Maybe we can conquer the world together? (speaking abstractly, of course!)