Jason Shen's Rejection Therapy Challenge – Week 2 | Hacker News Reader

Jason Shen's Rejection Therapy Challenge – Week 2

jasonshen.com

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I wonder what his friends will think of him after this. I think if I had a friend doing this it would be annoying. I mean the rejection therapy idea has merit, but so aggressively pursuing rejection like this just means you're constantly asking people to give you things. A lot of it is just strange.

I wanted to knock my rejection out right away so when I was at the Caltrain station, I was looking for opportunities to get rejected. Then I spied a guy eating a croissant and decided to ask if I could have some. Who gives strangers a piece of their croissant? He kind of looked at me funny and pointed at the coffeeshop where he got it, but I insisted that I wanted a piece of HIS croissant. When he asked “just a little piece?” my heart sank. He ended up giving me his croissant. I had to eat it, smile, and then slowly back away. FAILED REJECTION!

Weird..

Shouldn't the rejection be focused (as much as possible) around areas that you want to improve such as getting a conversation started with women and cold calling customers? Securing a bite of someone else's croissant is pretty low on my list of rejection fears.

Yea, this is what I posted to his blog:

"This just seems like you are being creepy, a jerk or self-entitled. I appreciate getting out of your comfort zone in an effort towards self-improvement, but I wonder if you could push yourself to do so in a way that also contributes to society."

Yeah, I know that can sound weird. I've tried hard not to do things that are hurt people or are particularly bothersome. But part of what rejection therapy teaches you is that people don't really care that much about you. That guy has probably completely forgotten about that incident already (I mean San Francisco is full of weirdos).

I've been trying to get more meaningful rejections (see the edit I made at the end just now for an example) but at the same time, I'm going to make sure I get rejected every day. I've committed to the challenge and I won't back down now.

It's fun reading, but to make it really interesting I think you would need to go really far outside your comfort zone.

Real rejection is hard. Find out, by going to Facebook, and send a really heartfelt message to that girl you always had feelings for but never told. Find out what real rejection is.

I have to wonder if the head of this thread is actually a rejection that counts. They're rejecting your use of rejection therapy.

I'm only really rejecting a few of his rejection attempts. Overall it's a cool idea, calling strangers and attempting to share food are where it went over board.

"This just means you're constantly asking people to give you things."

Not necessarily. How often have we seen people not offer assistance to a needy stranger? Or pay someone a compliment? Or say hello to a complete stranger? We don't because we might not get a response we expect.

Rejection attempts should always be a win/win, or at the very least completely harmless, and Jason demonstrated that.

Week 3 suggestion:

Go to a popular bar. Find a table where there are no seats but more women than men (ideally all women). Find a chair that is empty (ideally on the opposite side of the room) and drag it all the way calmly (loudly, of course) to the table. Smile, sit down, start a conversation with the group

Oh man - that's a slightly scary but exciting idea. I may have to take you up on it!

The idea of welcoming rejection, in order to not be afraid of it, has been inspiring me a lot lately in both personal and startup life. I saw the light when I was taking improv class and realizing that you can only really do improv if you embrace looking stupid. It ends up I look stupid loads of times inadvertently so I might as well go for it.

Looking stupid should be a side effect of getting rejected and not a path towards it. It's interesting that you mention improv because rarely ever in improv do you reject an idea. From what I've seen successful improv is working with every outrageous thing that your partners can make up while to turn it into a genuinely enjoyable act. Like you said I believe the point of Rejection Therapy is not to embrace looking stupid, rather it is to overcome your fear of doing so.

Wouldn't a nationally competitive gymnast think rejection as being old-hat by now? Gymnastics is reputedly one of the harshest sports.

That was an entertaining read. Very ballsy.

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