I’ve recently had an opportunity to interface with a bunch great people.
There’s been times though that I noticed this feeling in my chest, like I’m 12 and I’d like to impress some cool kid or something.
I’ve wondered why that happened. I tried to look for commonalaties in those interactions, and realized this —
This first, their mental model of the world was different from myne. i.e Bourgeois political science major.
Because of that, their opinion of me wasn’t the highest.
This would be all fine and good, since my opinion of them would not be also so high.
BUT, I wanted them to think otherwise.
I was trying to impress them, and that trying is the killer. It puts you in a servile paradgim, looking for another person for validation.
I think it’s univerally true to never try to impress anyone. The ones I’ve felt would be my friends for a while did not require me being different.