Inner Dialog

I beleive that people don't do things because they need to, instead they do things because they want to. My inner dialog runs along the lines of "What does this person want?"

In the beginning, I could clearly identify their superficial wants... meaning those on the surface and readily apparent. I want a glass of water. I want to go to the movies. I want to go to Paris and eat snails.

After a while, I started wondering why they wanted these things. I steered conversations to get past their superficial wants and desires and get deeper into their motivations behind them. Direct questions don't work as well because people's defenses go up as soon as they figure out I am prying. I have learned to be subtle and let them talk more.

When I feel I know what a person wants, I sort them into two groups. These two groups are hard for me to define, but something Albert Einstein is said to have said comes pretty darn close.
Quote:

The ideals which have lighted me on my way and time after time given me new
courage to face life cheerfully, have been Truth, Goodness, and Beauty. . . .
The ordinary objects of human endeavour -- property, outward success, luxury --
have always seemed to me contemptible.

I like the people in the first group. I don't like the people in the second group. That's my inner dialog.

Notes on Novelty

My first year working in the Nevada casinos taught me that "you get out of it what you put into it." And this I have carried forward with me ever since. Despite this note of positiveness, working in a casino can be DEADLY BORING. For the guests, it is exciting, uplifting, and inspiring. For employees, it is the same old thing day after day.

During my first year, everything was new to me. As an employee I was riding the same waves as all the guests. Wow! This is fun! I wonder what is going to happen next! Right near the end of that year, I started noticing that it was the same old thing over and over again. What a drag.

Then I heard a couple of old-timers (with a combined total of 70 years in the business...) talking about things they'd seen in said years. They were swapping stories to see if the other guy had ever seen what they'd seen.

"Have you ever seen someone barf on a blackjack table?" "Oh, yeah. More than once."
"Have you ever seen one of the dice from the craps table bounce right into a buxom woman's cleavage?" "Sure, sure. Happens all the time."
"Have you ever seen the stickman get the stick caught on his sleeve between himself and the rail, sending the stick so high in the air that it took a full 10 seconds for the stick to go all the way up and then fall two feet away from a little old lady?"
"Woah... nope. Never seen that before. Have you?"
"Yep. At the Pioneer Club in 1989. We were working day shift..."

Nope, never seen that before.

That response has stayed with me ever since then. I had never heard of such an approach to any business. After that I was alert and alive for things I had never seen before. I walked in fresh every day ready to get out of it exactly what I put into it.... something new, something rare, something fresh.

This doesn't run as an "active" inner dialog for me. It is more secondary, perhaps subconscious. But when I see something rare, unique, and certainly unusual, the first thing that pops into my mind is...

Nope, never seen that before.

Extreme

Don't you just hate it when the safest thing for you and your buddy to do right now is JUMP OVER THE SIDE OF THE CLIFF?? Fuck. I know I just hate it.

No, that's not me... I promise. But it sure the hell does look a lot like Mexico to me.

One of my most favorite pictures of all time.

Long shot of the open market

More to follow.

Smile!

Dialog

"Ha! Ha! Ha!"

"Why are you laughing like that? It's not that funny."

"Actually, I think it is kinda funny if you think about it."

"No it isn't. How could you possibly think that?"

"I guess I don't take some things as seriously as you do. I think it's funny."

"Well, you're just dumb. I don't know why you don't take this more seriously."

"I know."

"You know what?"

"I learned a long time ago that most things aren't really that serious so I quit worrying about them and started laughing at them."

"Are you crazy? Everything is serious!"

"No it's not."

"Life is serious. Work is serious. Money is serious."

"Only if you look at it that way."

"Well, I do."

"I know."

"You think you know, but you don't know anything."

"You might be right."

"Oh, and you think you're right?"

"It isn't really as important to me as it is to you to be right about this."

"Why not?"

"Because I'm not taking you seriously."