https://www.reddit.com/r/MensLib/comments/65fkdh/ive_been_making_good_progress_i_think_i_want_to/

I was at a coffee shop the other day, and the girl next to me is reading Jacques Ranciere. He's a philosopher who's affiliated with other philosophers I like, but I don't know enough about him that I would be able to uphold a decent conversation about him. And she is busy. I mean, really busy. She is underlining and highlighting the bejeezus out of this book. Her eyes are moving line to line like she was prepared for a snake to jump out at her. Homegirl is on a mission. No doubt she's very smart, and very committed to learning about Ranciere has to say. She's most likely in college or grad school I imagine.

So what do I do? What am I proud of?

I decide not to talk to her. Why? Because she's busy. That was a really hard thing for me to do, because I have a long history of attempting to get a girl's attention based on mutual interests, and hoping that it somehow turns into an opportunity for sex or dating. I've been doing this uncomfortable charade since middle school, where I was lonely and desperate to be seen with people that I grasped at straws in conversations with people, and the result were predictable. The conversations were never good, and they never wanted me around because I wasn't even relevant to what they wanted or needed in life. Homegirl was busy analyzing the crap out of this thinker. I figured she wouldn't want a lukewarm conversation about other thinkers, or have a lukewarm conversation about how she looked like she was having fun analyzing the crap out of this thinker. Just let her be.

I don't know, did I do good?