It's like a health check. When you hit /api/health/ it probably doesn't report all the details like number of users created today, count of files in the S3 bucket, whatever. It checks that shit's basically working, it heard your request, and now everything is 200 OK.
(No, you can't return a 204 no content in this metaphor because that's not what the client is expecting. If they don't get a 200 back, they're going to think something is wrong and investigate.)
I'm just assuming some of you are like backend developers and this metaphor will make sense to you.
"How are you?", is basically an open question of "what have I done lately? where am I headed?" It's an invitation to politely level some burden at least, but this also includes taking in some burden of the friend.
I used to do that before I knew better. Now I slap my knee and say "so how about this crazy weather, huh?" whilst maintaining fierce eye contact so that they're pressured into not rolling theirs. I'm a much better person now.
No one has ever belittled me in the past so it's not as though I've been ridiculed, but I recall years back when I had just immigrated to Canada and had started out as a grocery clerk/stock guy at the grocery chain I manage at now. It was my wife's convocation (CPA) in a very upscale gala sort of environment. We were seated at a large round table with several newly designated accountants and several distinguished CAs, CPAs and other professionals.
Naturally at some point I was asked what I do, and I had to state in front of everyone that I was a stocker at a grocery store. Nobody laughed or anything like that, but there was that awkward kind of pause where the table recognized that I was not accomplished. I remember feeling more humiliated in that moment than I probably should have. It was a blow to my self-esteem, and not the only time I've felt that way in my life. It's why I don't ask others what they do. Imagine being unemployed or something in that moment. Just kind of brings you down in front of others needlessly, and it sucks because there genuinely is nothing wrong with being a stocker.
I always find it weird when someone asks for my, or answers with their, profession. Because that usually says very little about someone. A better question is what someone likes to spend their free time with.
Most people have something they are passionate about. And the weirder, the better. Because weird hobbies are something that many feel judged for. But engaging positively with someones isopod collection, really tends to get people out of their shell.
It becomes something to bond over and it's much more interesting than "train conductor".
I respond to that with, "Oh you know, a little bit of this and a little bit of that."
Better to have them look down their noses at me all night thinking I'm unemployed than endure hours on end of questions like, "I inseminated my horse with my own fluids so I don't have to pay income taxes now, right?"
One of my pet peeves about being an Uber driver is when people’s only method of conversation is “getting to know you”.
As if we’re college roommates and we’re gonna be best buds. No dude, in 9 minutes I’m dropping you off and we’re never seeing each other again.
I kind of get it though because most people don’t have enough conversations to develop good conversational skills. I’m lucky as an Uber driver because I get to have conversations all day.
There are two guys standing in front of a door, one always lies and the other is always on his phone, which one is closer to reaching self actualization
"what do you do for fun": I'm really into horse-based watersports and am currently funding a Kazak paramilitary organization to take care of the mares whilst their parents are sold as meat to french markets.
"what do you do for a living" and "how old are you" are not riddles. They're barely one step above "Hi, how do you do?" on the social interaction scale.
It's kind of the joke?! Some people are socially awkward.
Asking people what they do for a living is kind of a bad question and shows how capitalism is controlling every aspect of our lives. It's reducing people to what they do to make money, and it's placing them on a social scale. It's a way to evaluate the social capital of a person. People will judge depending on the answer. Consider 'I work at McDonald's' vs 'I work in finance'. Bad question.