Politics sure is often a heated discussion subject. We come in with our set point about immigration or federal funding or trade pacts or budget deficits, and the person we are talking with has their set point, and there is often little compromise if any, during the discussion.

That is true about good communication. It won’t usually work out where someone will directly say “you communicated well”, but they will say that in other terms. It is hard to lose by listening.

I read somewhere, good communication starts first with trying to understand the other person, then with trying to be understood.

Nice try but I only hold my breath for breath-holding contests. Doing it without a contest in place is not my style. Contests sure are great.

Also, me being in violent disagreement with someone is about as likely as finding an iPhone inside of a watermelon.

“And the book was titled ‘The Rare Agreement’.”

That example you provided is the kind of example we each find when we talk to people, or give someone a chance to showcase who they are. Others usually have more to them than we would assume at first. We sometimes forget that people have gone through thousands of experiences that are at least somewhat different from the ones we have gone through, giving them a different view of the world.

Lot of people worth getting to know out there, like Rob White“

Certainly not a lot of respect is given to those who want to do good things. They are often seen as people that can be used. It is important to be strong and competitive when wanting to do good, or else some other person will try to convert your good into something beneficial to them, not concerning with if it damages the good.

You are right that folks are usually special because they want to be. A lot of effort is put into separating from others.

Good call about giving folks the benefit of the doubt when they err or lash out or so on.

That’s a cool thing to keep in mind. I think I would say that that is accurate, as people do end up surprising me at some point or another. We can’t expect a surprise at the first available moment, because then it wouldn’t be a surprise. It does come, though.

That is true. Listening with an open ear appears to be at an all-time low, which is why the few who really listen are succeeding even more at this time and date.

That path-of-least-resistance concept you brought up does make sense. Some folks see something that is not in their regular routine or thinking, and assume that it can’t be that valuable because they aren’t already doing it(a bit presumptuous), and so they close off to something that could expand their minds and productivity.

I like your point that most have value if looked at from the view of the observer, and each new person we meet has another piece of the puzzle we can make use of or understand. We sure can’t sift through everyone(yet), but we can sift through a small amount of individuals.

Later we might have a search function set up for people instead of websites or Ebooks in that operating system you alluded to.

Good to hear from you.

That is probably a solid way to go with valued trust. In that type of case, I would agree with you. Trust being broken is basically a message that reliability is not that high of a value to the other person, unless it was somehow a judgment error on their part, but that is much less common than the error of breaking trust out of lack of concern for it.

That point about how you feel regarding chances for erring on commitments here and there is also in line with the message here. People don’t usually want to fall through on their commitments as well. We are on the same page.

It sure does cloud our judgment. It always leaves us with some memory of the person that is biased towards that first meeting. I don’t let this be the case, but it certainly takes effort to prevent. The natural tendency, as you say, leaves us with a first-impression view of most of the world around us.