Social Interactions - Comfort, Messaging and Life Enjoyment
Some of the highlights from our discussion:
Our messaging etiquette is dependent on how well we know the other person. With close friends we tend to be responsive and active mainly because there is a mutual understanding of the way you message each other and what your messaging is like – you have a shared understanding of the tone and topics that you can discuss. With other people or new acquaintances, there is no mutual understanding and hence it requires more thought as to how to respond and in what way – requiring more mental and emotional energy, often resulting in delayed or avoided responses.
Small group chats are the optimal form of messaging. They provide a low commitment but high impact environment with no emotional overhead to message people individually, therefore reducing the pressure. In other words, group chats can spread the weight of social interactions.
Despite this, messaging is still a sub-optimal form of communication. There is little value in having a messaging relationship with someone compared to having an interaction in real life. This is why Ali advocates his messaging minimalist approach – only messaging those who aren’t friends for the purposes of asking or answering questions or arranging to meet-up. Adopting a personal policy, such as being a messaging minimalist, allows you to take a universal approach to these conversations which reduces the mental and emotional strain if you didn’t have such a blanket policy.
The pinnacle of the human condition is closer than we think. The default mode of operation is that we are continuously striving or seeking something with our lives. However, having fun with your friends is, in Taimur’s words, ‘as good as it gets’ and, what’s more, it’s something that everyone can experience. For Ali, the other factor which increases contentment and happiness is to avoid tying your expectations to numerical goals as this only increases pressure and disappointment if you’re not able to meet them.
Become a Not Overthinker
We've got a fun little members-only community where we have a private Slack channel, and host weekly (ish) Zoom hangouts. Click here if you fancy joining.
Leave us a Review
If you enjoy listening to the podcast, we'd love for you to leave us a review on iTunes / Apple Podcasts. Here's a link that works even if you're not on an iPhone :)
Send us an Audio Message
We really want to include more listener comments and questions in our episodes. If you've got any thoughts on this episode, or if you've got a conundrum or question you'd like us to discuss, send an audio file / voice note to [email protected].
- For any non-audio comments, please comment on our YouTube channel.
- Alternatively, feel free to drop us a tweet or DM on Twitter - https://twitter.com/noverthinking.
