It was a meeting that lasted a few fleeting moments on 31st May 2014. Today I met him again at TEDx Singapore’s Undiscovered Country. I was there at the invitation of a very good friend, Michelle.
I do not have an eidetic memory, I was precise about the date because I had written about it in an FB post, so finding it again was easy. I remembered the guy because he left a big impression. I had intended to post here an impromptu social experiment I conducted during one of runs in the very near future, but meeting Thaddeus earlier today prompted me to dig out those notes I wrote after my run and experiment that day and write a post now.
I had written in my notes the following:
Performed a social experiment in this morning’s run. The premise was that runners are happy people. The experiment was to greet everyone I passed a good morning & to see the response.
Responses that I got varied from; no response, non committal grunt, very labored grunt ( expected given the terrain), a surprised ‘huh, oh good morning’, shy softly spoken greeting to a full blown hearty greeting complete with eye lock & smile.Results were, 95% of those greeted, returned my greetings. Of the estimated 5% who did not return my greetings were either too surprised to react, too tired to bother or simply disinterested.
These number were estimates as I wasn’t equipped to count the numbers greeted or who had returned my greetings. The next tests will be better recorded either by using a counter or turning on the voice recorder on my iPhone 5S. The latter option would be the better one.
The finding showed that generally runners are a happy bunch. Will be sitting at a bar analyzing these data & distill inference.
Thaddeus was the guy who had given me “full blown hearty greeting complete with eye lock & smile”. A good first impression does go long way. If you are going for an interview for that plum role, do note. But first impressions will only get you so far. You to deliver good work once you get that role.
As to the follow up experiment, well I had not had the opportunity to perform so although I have begun to greet fellow park or trail users a hearty hello. I think it’s a nice thing to do, to smile and say hello and to receive a greeting in return. But if I do not get a respond, I take it as the other guy is simply trying to cope with his run.
And yes I shall follow up the experiment. Soon.