> Maybe we're all losing the ability to connect with one another authentically. I think it's cultural. Different cultures, different ways of establishing trust

> Maybe we're all losing the ability to connect with one another authentically. I think it's cultural. Different cultures, different ways of establishing trust. I had an interesting conversation with a coworker (I work for a German company) about the need to calibrate monitors for proper color rendering for different tasks. His desire to understand the 'truth' about how monitors deliver light to our eyes was quite strong while at the same time being very direct about rejecting casual references such as it's just what you have to do with a monitor when you do print jobs. Germans. Engineering focus and zero bullshit is part of the culture. I also 'hung out' with a bunch of Romanians in Amsterdam one night over the weekend. They were very direct with mis-trust. One of them put his coat next to me on the couch I was sitting on and he looked right at me and said "you don't steal my coat, OK?". I assured him I was not going to steal his coat and then he smiled and said "great!". :) In the U.S. it seems we use a lot of shortcuts to establish trust quickly. The problem with this approach is that because the cost of trust is so low (say an ad hominem argument or bandwagon bias) it's easy to abuse the trust system for personal gain. Given we're all about living the "American Dream" of becoming insanely successful ($1B exit anyone?), this frequently puts us in a situation of duality, where we want what we want, but aren't willing to put the time and effort into establishing the trust we need to get us there. These are generalizations, of course.