Attentiveness
Personal January 21, 2009

Why do people get freaked out if you're too attentive? I shouldn't even phrase it as "too attentive." It's really just the regular kind.

If you reply to a Facebook message, return a call or respond to a text message within the first five or ten minutes of receiving, why is that a problem? Suppose it's 12 AM and you're sitting at your computer. Your email beeps that you got a new Facebook message, so you sign on to IM the person who messaged you. They say "woah, that's creepy." Is it? Do they honestly believe I was sitting at my computer all day just waiting for them to message me? C'mon people. This isn't MySpace. If I was on the other side of this scenario, I'd be glad the person came online to talk to me. Shows commitment, damn it. Commitment to people you care about.

It's like that typical bit of advice when it comes to following up with girls: "don't call right away. wait a bit. it makes you mysterious." My friend says that if you respond right away, then it's like you have no life. I say maybe I'm just supernaturally able to multi-task better than most. In four years of engineering school, I really wasn't ever busy enough that I couldn't respond to someone.

Even if I'm rushing somewhere and I get a text message on my phone, I will respond most likely in the next five minutes. Same for an email, unless it requires more thought which I can't spare at the moment. The other day I was "busy" working on a project and I got an email from a friend with a few questions. So, being me, I stopped what I was doing and wrote a lengthy email back. He never responded.

I think it'd be pretty fulfilling if I were to be so "busy" everyday that I really didn't have time to shoot off a reply email. So busy that I hardly had a moment to myself in an eight-hour day and returned home fairly exhausted. That'd be fun.

Til then, I'm replying to the messages I get when and as soon as I want to!

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