The Wrong Impression.

For weeks and weeks I have been working under the impression that Cool New Asia was to be a medium / large scale event. Academic symposium, yes, but with a different touch to bring in more general audiences to benefit them.

But as time goes by, I eventually found out it wasn't to be different from any other academic symposium. This sank in to me when things didn't fit in the way I envisioned it to be, during casual chats and through the meetings I had. Symposiums, immensely useful events that allows scholars to add into the existing body of knowledge about a particular topic, but also inevitably boring due to it's academic nature - hence, general public appeal won't be there.

Because I set out to work with a wrong impression in mind; for my work, I drafted letters and typed up paperwork that would have made my previous bosses in a professional consulting firm proud (due to the professionalism shown).

No wonder, the other day, I received a comment that an invitation letter I wrote for the Asian Consulate-Generals were far too rigid and formal. Elena attributed it to the possible fact that we have a set of different writing style in Malaysia.

But I don't think so - it was the mindset that I set out to work on the letter that made it too rigid and formalized for the nature of our event. The WRONG mindset. Or, to put it a better way, misinformed mindset.

Oooops.

This incident made me realise that not everyone has you, and just you, at the top of their priority list, because you, to them, are just a nuisance, and perhaps at that odd point in time when they find your presence necessary, that's when they pay you their fullest attention. It's just like when someone is talking to me, I can decide to devote only 20% of my attention to the person and just acknowledge but not fully listen, because my cognitive process might deem that person not worthy of so much of my attention, or at that moment in time I simply couldn't be bothered to devote 80% of my energy on top of the already huge pile of stuff I have to do.

It goes the same the other way. If I can do that to people, people can do that to me too.

As such, I attribute my misinformation to this - easy dismissal, part of the nature of human communication, because worlds don't revolve around just one person, and people can never devote their fullest to you. Easy dismissal, because it's so easy to assume that the other party will somehow just 'know', rather than using up 5% more calories to check with the other person (simply with the simple act of using more brain cells and opening up your jaw).

I won't elaborate on how am I going to change or improve this, as writing this down is a reminder to me that there are universal unspoken rules that govern the very nature of being human; and that these rules are always running in the background, ever so discreet until it bites you in the bum, suddenly bringing you crashing back to reality.

Oh well, I've just got bitten, and I'll just need to press on. I'm sure I'm better off realising this earlier on than later.