“I opened myself to the gentle indifference of the world finding it so much like myself.” — Albert Camus

Today I mock interviewed at a local-ish school. Two girls, and one boy.

The girls crushed it, the boy less so. I’m pretty sure he was younger. And English is his second language.

He did his best. His best was alright. And there were definitely some communication challenges. Nothing completely negative, but lots of room for improvement.

It was interesting.

The other two mock candidates were interesting in their desire to lead. Each with a different take.

One very perky, confident, multiple-valedictorian, that’s very ambitious, and the other a little wry but definitely expressed a desire to lead.

Interesting.

I am enjoying interviewing people outside of the realm of the domain of my career.

It’s also interesting that I am apparently living in an age in which a Unites States president is now a convicted felon - multiple times over.

Interesting.

“Rotten fruit makes other fruit rot faster primarily due to the release of ethylene gas. Ethylene is a natural plant hormone that regulates the ripening process in many fruits. When a fruit starts to rot, it emits higher levels of ethylene, which accelerates the ripening—and eventual rotting—of nearby fruits. Additionally, the presence of mold and bacteria on rotting fruit can spread to other fruits, further hastening the decay process. This is why one bad fruit in a bunch can quickly cause the others to spoil.” — ChatGPT

I think this is a nice multi-level metaphor. Pretty nice. Yeah. Pretty happy with that.

The verbiage of what ChatGPT spit out is pretty terrible, but it can be distilled into its remix of “the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree,” and the “bad apple.”

That has been driving me crazy though. In many, and multiple, ways.

I keep buying fruit. Cherries. Strawberries. And the stupid fucking things start to get bruised, then slimy, relatively rapidly.

It also applies to humans.

Group dynamics.

When someone’s character begins to degrade - when their attitude dives toward the negative - it can be contagious. The negativity - that rot - can spread across the team like wildfire.

I’m feeling all the feelings. I’ve been having a more challenging time staying on task.

And I know I need to.

I just…

I dunno.