This is from a comment I just wrote in LJ, I think it's an important enough comment that it deserves its own entry.

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I don't think it's a good idea to judge someone's personality based on one interaction.

Not that I particularly want to pursue productive discussion with you or anyone else. I don't believe discussions work unless you know people well. Even among the most rational of people. This is because two people who don't have much experience with each other don't know much about how the other thinks, what they mean by certain words, their beliefs, and so on.

So I don't usually attempt them with strangers, I save it for friends, it's difficult enough with them. Or when I do speak to strangers, it's often as a game, I don't take it as seriously and I don't expect them to take it as seriously. I've observed countless times that things that my friends say where it seems obvious to me what they mean can be utterly misinterpreted and cause confusion in people who don't know them.

I think this is universal among communication; communication requires that each person knows what the other person's premises are, that they know what each other connotes and denotes with their words, etc.

I sometimes, years later, re-read early conversations I've had with a friend when I was first getting to know them. I like to save instant message logs, and LJ threads are forever. And what strikes me when I do that is how poorly we communicated and how often we misinterpreted the other in those early times, compared to how I am with that particular person now.

Wth... X? X? Could you pick a rarer letter?

Your Soul-Mate's Name will Start with the Letter...
	X
'What Letter Will Your SoulMates Name Start With?' at QuizGalaxy.com

I guess it's possible. I'll keep a look out for people with those names.