Member-only story
How to tell when someone doesn’t care
It’s easier than we think
I ran into a former classmate recently. Josh and I were never close friends, but we always got along and respected each other.
Josh was a really nice guy — everyone liked him. All of our class looked up to him, but he was either too humble to notice or too humble to let it go to his head.
The conversation started off okay. I asked how he was doing, how his family was, where he was employed — all the usual questions.
Then it dawned on me that I was doing all the asking and Josh was doing all the answering. He asked no questions about me at all — none. Although still friendly and cordial, he did nothing more than respond to my questions.
A short time later, I bid him a friendly goodbye and parted ways — because a realization had occurred to me.
Josh didn’t really give a shit.
There was a time when that would have bothered me. Now, although his lack of interest was disappointing, it really wasn’t a big deal.
In the past, I would not have been as good at reading the social cues. I would have continued the discussion in the hope the other person would start asking questions about me , not realizing they just wanted the conversation to end.
