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The Offline Club

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185 points esher | 3 comments | | HN request time: 0s | source
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tonymet ◴[] No.44382041[source]

  There was a dream that was having a social life. You could only whisper it. Anything more than a whisper and it would vanish, it was so fragile.

  -- Marcus Aurelius
Relationships and things that matter are spontaneous. When you try to optimize them into calendars, checklists & databases -- they become lame and fall apart.

It's half the reason people aren't social. They try so hard to "schedule a meetup" and the meetup becomes work so people stop hanging out.

You're just supposed to show up at someone's house and do shit.

You don't make friends by agenda. You have cool experiences , build trust and develop a bond.

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al_borland ◴[] No.44382780[source]
People are busy and can’t accommodate random pop-ins all the time. That is also a nightmare for certain personality types, and is often considered quite rude.

My dad is in his early 70s and still regularly gets together with people from all eras of his life, going all the way back to high school. Old neighbors, former co-workers and employees, and various others he met along the way. Unlike a lot of retirees, he has a rich social life and a packed calendar with dozens of close friends. This was all due to him regularly reaching out and scheduling a meal or activity, or just time to chat, over the course of his life. Friendships don’t just spontaneously last decades, they take effort, especially as people go through different stages of life.

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tonymet ◴[] No.44383130[source]
that's part of the issue I'm raising. people pretending to be as busy as a surgeon. Even parents / grandparents are scheduling family visits with a calendar despite watching TV and golfing most of the time.

It's the corporatization of life that I'm protesting and we all participate. A total buzzkill

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al_borland ◴[] No.44383360[source]
It’s not corporatizing, it’s simply respecting people’s time. Maybe I am just watching TV, but I’m doing that after a long day at work and don’t want an impromptu guest I need to entertain. Nor do I keep my house in a state to have company at the drop of a hat.

Drop ins were cool in college, but as an adult, it’s not so fun.

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tonymet ◴[] No.44388714[source]
I have family with kids and their door is always open. They are very much adults with jobs, kids and other commitments.
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qualeed ◴[] No.44388765[source]
Good for them, but, as should be obvious from this thread, different people have different tolerances for "door always open" policies.

And, as also mentioned elsewhere in this thread, the tolerance will be significantly different for people I met a couple months ago and people who've been close family members for my whole life.

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tonymet ◴[] No.44389936[source]
you've got to embrace some discomfort to grow
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qualeed ◴[] No.44390212[source]
You have no idea who I am.

Just because someone isn't like you about open door policies doesn't mean they need to "grow". We're just different.

What a presumptuous thing to say.

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tonymet ◴[] No.44390428[source]
in english "you" means anonymous third person. Stop seeking anger
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qualeed ◴[] No.44390624{3}[source]
It's not anger.

I just found your comment presumptuous, even if you meant it in the third person. Calling it out as such doesn't mean I'm "seeking anger".

People are different. No one, myself or anonymous third-persons, needs to "grow" because they have different tolerances than you.

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1. tonymet ◴[] No.44390758{4}[source]
It's a general statement that the only way to grow is to seek discomfort. Your position as I understand it is that different people have different comfort levels with spontaneity . My position is that I understand that and see it as a blocker to socialization.

The core issue with scheduling life within your comfort zone is that it is inherently reductive, because you cannot plan out your relationships.

The most important things in your life will happen out of schedule.

So I get that you are more comfortable living according to a schedule. All growth comes from embracing discomfort.

Yes I'm presuming that I'm right about this fact of life.

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2. ◴[] No.44392735[source]
3. al_borland ◴[] No.44392762[source]
There are many ways a person can grow. While society rewards the extrovert, everyone growing in the direction of being more extroverted isn’t great advice.

You mention seeking discomfort. A pop-in isn’t seeking, it’s finding me at my doorstep. I seek discomfort by taking solo trips to various countries around the world. It’s a planned trip, sure, but it pushes me way outside my comfort zone and forces me into spontaneous and unexpected situations each day I’m away. Other than the flight and hotel, I don’t plan much and just see what happens. The same goes for various other things I seek out. In my home, I want to be able to relax without having to think about what may or may not randomly show up.

While humans need variety in their life, they also need some sense of stability. Where people choose to get those things is going to look different for everyone. This is the fact of life.

I know families who have a door is always open policy, then rent the same cabin for vacation every year for decades. I do the opposite, and they wouldn’t dream of attempting what I do. We are both meeting our needs, just in different ways. One could say their door always open policy is their attempt to remain in their comfort zone. They can feel social and have little doses of surprise, all from the comfort and safety of their home. If that is enough variety for them, that’s great.

My sister has a door always open policy with me, but I still always text first. I don’t want to show up and find an empty house, or that they’re all in a mad rush to finish a big school project before Monday, where I’d be a distraction. It doesn’t have to be a “schedule”, but simply a heads up and an acknowledgment that I won’t be causing an inconvenience.