A year or two back, I had an encounter with an artist. They were in some financial distress. This person blamed Uber and a company they'd rented a car from for

A year or two back, I had an encounter with an artist. They were in some financial distress. This person blamed Uber and a company they'd rented a car from for this distress, telling a tale of woe and failed art shows. They included numbers. I took the numbers provided and worked out what their finances looked like. Tracked income and outlays. It quickly became clear that while Uber hadn't helped their situation, the several thousand dollars they had spent on financially unsuccessful art shows had more to do with their distress. The artist in question was blown away. They'd literally never encountered the notion of tracking their money in a meaningful sense. What I learned from this is that what's unimaginable to me - such as the idea of budgeting being entirely foreign - is someone else's normal. I also learned that it's impossible to put myself into their shoes fully, because life experiences can easily diverge wildly.