And One More Thing...

Feb 8th, 2020 - Category: Miscellaneous

(Or maybe five…) To follow up on my recent post “Have I Got A Story To Tell You!” about Tim Urban’s massive series “The Story of Us,” Old here are a couple more fascinating articles that, while a bit older, are still great reads if you missed them (and/or if you’re tired of politics).

  1. “Elon Musk: The World’s Raddest Man” - He really might be… and if Tesla, SpaceX, etc. weren’t keeping him busy enough he recently released an EDM track (Electronic Dance Music) on SoundCloud.
  2. “11 Awkward Things About Email” - At the very least they are VERY thought provoking. Who knew there was etiquette for “Emailing with anyone born before 1930?”
  3. “Everything You Should Know About Sound” - After working in acoustics for the past 20 years I still say wow, just wow!

Finally, fun tip found on Reddit in response to the question, “How does someone politely end a conversation with a person who won’t stop talking?” We’ve all experienced this before and user NuffSaid98’s response is priceless:

We have a great line that we use in Ireland. I haven’t heard it used abroad but it could well be used all over for all I know.

The person is rabbiting on and is showing no sign of stopping. You clearly and firmly say “I’ll let you go”. Then with the confidence of a person doing them a favour you turn on your heel and stride away.

This has the effect of making them think you are the one wanting to avoid wasting their time. If they figure it out they can’t call you out on it because to do so would be to admit (at least to themselves) that they are wasting your time. In fact most people never allow themselves to think it might be them who is holding you up so they accept the “offer” of your leaving in order for them to get on with their important work.

In general if someone says “I’ll let you go” to me (rare but it has happened), I smile and say bye and end the conversation. It is a social convention and I abide by it. They want out. No ego. Let them go and the best of luck to them. People appreciate that I imagine.

Germany has a similar phrase, “Ich werde dich nicht länger aufhalten” which roughly translates as “I don’t want to keep you any longer.” Worth a shot at least and if these don’t work, there are 11,100+ comments on the thread that might provide a few more useful options!