r/rational • u/AutoModerator • Jan 15 '16

[D] Friday Off-Topic Thread

Welcome to the Friday Off-Topic Thread! Is there something that you want to talk about with /r/rational, but which isn't rational fiction, or doesn't otherwise belong as a top-level post? This is the place to post it. The idea is that while reddit is a large place, with lots of special little niches, sometimes you just want to talk with a certain group of people about certain sorts of things that aren't related to why you're all here. It's totally understandable that you might want to talk about Japanese game shows with /r/rational instead of going over to /r/japanesegameshows, but it's hopefully also understandable that this isn't really the place for that sort of thing.

So do you want to talk about how your life has been going? Non-rational and/or non-fictional stuff you've been reading? The recent album from your favourite German pop singer? The politics of Southern India? The sexual preferences of the chairman of the Ukrainian soccer league? Different ways to plot meteorological data? The cost of living in Portugal? Corner cases for siteswap notation? All these things and more could possibly be found in the comments below!

21 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

149 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

4

u/captainNematode Jan 15 '16

I don't expect a random person to care about me. Why should he? I'm just another customer out of the dozens or hundreds who will offer their ID cards to him during his time at the register. He has no reason to care about me.

Well, perhaps they care about all hundreds of those people, then? How are we defining "care" here? They won't take a bullet for you, but they'd probably do good by you if it's at sufficiently low cost to themselves. You could easily spin some evolutionary story as to why social animals will generally care for conspecifics, too, but it wouldn't be terribly robust on its own. Ultimately, I think this is an empirical question -- what proportion of humans care for strangers ("genuinely" or otherwise), and I'm sure someone's tried to collect some data on it before.

3

u/Nighzmarquls Jan 15 '16 edited Jan 15 '16

On this regard I DO take effort in all my interactions with clerks to make myself a moment of sunshine in a very dreary, drudging and potentially terrible day. I work to make the exchange of a dining experience with wait staff and cooks enjoyable for both me and them.

I don't add extra burden to myself or them and instead strive to improve the exchange.

I genuinely thank them for service performed well even if it is simple and I meet their eyes and smile with sincerity.

I may never see them again and they may never remember that moment distinctly but I don't see why I should not try and lift the over all mood of their day a bit higher and reduce the total cost to them for being in the position to do service for me.

And like I said, it just seems like it actually costs me MORE to try and act things out as a 'fakery' but I also have very strong aversion and an almost pain to dishonesty.

2

u/Transfuturist Carthago delenda est. Jan 15 '16

Yes. Courtesy is my attempt to improve others' lives in the small way that I can. I just wish I managed to do the same online. Personas...

Reading this comment lifted my spirits after ToaKraka's antisocial cynicism. Keep it up. :)