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Comment by spywaregorilla | Hacker News Reader

> I was out for a drink with a friend.

> As we settled in, George asked about my life and how I was feeling.

> “I’m good. Busy!"

> He stared blankly through my empty words.

> Feeling the pressure of his gaze, I adjusted myself and added that living in California had begun to wear on me, it being so far from my parents on the East Coast.

> George: “How often do you see your parents?"

> Me: “Maybe once a year now.”

> George: “And how old are they?"

> Me: “Mid-sixties."

> George: “Ok, so you’re going to see them 15 more times before they die.”

...

> It wasn’t meant to be rude—it was just…math.

There's something to think about in all this but I really can't get over imagining what a weird dude George is.

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"Did you and George have a good time?" "Sort of. He stared at me blankly for a while, and then he told me my parents were going to die soon." "..." "Do you want to move to the East Coast?" "Sure."

I had this conversation randomly with a friend, I was George.

It surprised me how hard this hit them, and that they've talked about it many times since then because yeah, its just a little strategic thinking about the world.

I became George after comedian Aziz Ansari had bit on one of his Netflix specials where he does math on how many times you can expect to see your parents.

Yeah, I get the feeling George may not exist outside of the author's imagination.

Sure, there could be back story that fed that interaction, but I'm betting that didn't happen and it is a way of framing an unpopular decision in a flattering light.

Or there was a much longer conversation with twists and turns and the author distilled it for the format.

Or you don't know and there's no point in guessing.

There are Georges everywhere, and Id be surprised if that convo was much more complicated than posted

I find myself being that George all the time. Once I apparently convinced a friend of a friend of a friend (ie a stranger) to make another baby.

I only know this because when I saw these people two years later they had an extra kid in tow and thanked me for convincing them to make a plunge. I have no idea what I said, but they were adamant that I shoved them over the fence.

Another time I got a kid in undergrad admit to me that he wasn't going to the job fairs because he was expected to go to grad school.

I pointed out to him that applying to a job is a skill, and a hard one at that. I also told him that just because you apply for a job doesn't mean you'll take it. His jaw dropped at that realization (he's first gen Korean-American).

If you want to be George all you need to do is say basic, obvious, truths everyone pretends to ignore.

> I really can't get over imagining what a weird dude George is.

Unless he's a real estate agent.

Touché

I'm not George, but hell if I'm not guilty of saying things like this when actively listening.

Weird, but effective!

It's weird people think it's weird.

Making perhaps unpleasant but relevant and topical observations that help a friend isn't weird. It's charitable. The author brought up the fact that he would like to see his parents more often. George simply threw some light on the obvious in order to help a friend who is waffling and hesitating and wasting time instead of making the right decision. It was an obvious inference based on the stated facts and an important thing for the author to understand so that he could live a better life. It wasn't arbitrary, it wasn't nosy or intrusive or rude (if the author's story is accurate).

Probably a made up story for a twitter thread.

So then the author inherits the weird title?

I could easily see more blunt-autistic types being so practical, straight-forward though.

Not sure why you're being downvoted. I've seen this story repeated at least three times by different people. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33066955

Yeah, the whole story has that quality where you half expect the entire bus to stand up and give an applause at the end.

Or, once someone has heard the story, they are more likely to bring it up again, continuing the cycle.

I genuinely plan on mentioning this to my wife this evening. Not in a "let's move to live near my parents" way, but just as a way of bringing up that time is valuable.

If she then mentions to someone that I said this, will they say "I don't believe you, I've heard this story before?"

It seems at least as likely that a Roe Jogan listener might enact that story with a friend, as that they would just hear it and then make up a story where they ask the question.

It's of course quite pointless to speculate about the truth or fiction of an Internet story starring people you don't know.

I wonder about the people who think it's implausible however. Do you never discuss difficult things with your friends? Whether to marry the girl/guy/human, how many times you'll see your parents again, how's your cousin's health, that kind of thing?

That's supposed to be normal, I worry that what y'all would call friends is what I would call colleagues or casual acquaintances.

Yeah, versions of this story is making rounds on twitter/linkedin/fb.

Then again, it could be true. More likely to come up in conversation since people are reading it everywhere.

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