- Are you also an artist?
- Me? Haha no I’m not… but thank you, I do love arts though. I enjoy creating and marveling at beautiful things…
- I can see that.
- Really? Honestly I could spend the whole day at your gallery if I didn’t have to leave shortly to go to the farmer’s market before it’s closed today… they really speak to me.
- Yeah I can see that. Most people who relate to my work tend to have sensitive souls, others will come and leave pretty quickly. Which ones are your favorite?
- Have you been to Georgia before, ma’am?
- No, this is my first time!
- Wow. I’m so honored to be your first.
- Haha you are! OMG did you see that? I just saw a billboard on the side of the highway promoting a Gun Show from October 1 to October 2. What’s your opinion on it?
- I’m just a Lyft driver, ma’am. I don’t know about anything else.
- Do you follow the news?
- I don’t read the news, ma’am. I watch MSNBC, I watch CNN, I watch Fox. I just want them to give me the What, Who, How, and Why, but that doesn’t exist.
- Have you tried the BBC? I’m curious to know what you think.
- Ok, I will. Actually… I haven’t heard anything bad about the BBC yet.
- Ha. That’s good to know. So how do you usually select news to follow then?
- I google and do my own research, I don’t rely on just anyone to tell me the truth.
- How do you know what the truth is though?
- I use common sense. You can tell if stories are true.
- Hmm… What if we’re caught up in our own echo chamber? Have you thought about that? One of the reasons why I want to go to the south is because I want to talk to people whose opinions may differ from mine.
- That’s a good point, ma’am. There are people who select news stories to publish so it’s still not all objective, you know? For example, something bad happening in Savannah but they don’t want to write about it because they’re afraid it will prevent people from coming to the city. Not many people are aware of infotainment.
- That’s also a good point… Thank you so much for the ride and the chat. I hope we can all have more open conversations like this. It’s better for America.
- It’s better for humanity too, ma’am. And it was a pleasure being your driver.
- Do you want to stay in America after school?
- Yeah, I want to… but it’s very hard, ma’am. I’m currently on a student visa and it’s so challenging to get sponsorship through employment. There’s no guarantee that we would get it because we will all have to go through a lottery selection process even if the company sponsors us…
- I know. I was on a student visa and went through that whole process, too :)
- Oh really? So you must know how hard it is, ma’am… I thought you were just a year or two older than me!
- Haha thank you, that’s very flattering. But no, I’ve been working for quite a while ;) I do understand the struggles though. Don’t hesitate to reach out when you need, ok?
- Thank you so much, ma’am, I really appreciate it. I will reach out to you. I know many people get married instead because it’s much easier…
- Yeah, I know. Are you considering it?
- No, ma’am. I have a boyfriend at home…
- Miss, may I ask if you’re studying marketing or data? I saw you reading the book on the flight and was just curious…
- I’ve actually been working for a while now but thank you for saying hi, I work with numbers indeed!
- Oh I’m so sorry, thought you were still in college!
- Haha no worries. Interesting that you also guessed I studied marketing because that’s what I did in school. Very good guesses! It’s a great book by the way, I really enjoy reading it so far. Is there a specific reason why it piques your interest?
- Nothing particularly, I could see you were very into it so I wanted to ask. What was it about?
- Ahh yes… it’s fascinating. It makes a case that the world will become a much better place when we use numbers more often and more wisely. However, our brains are not wired to understand them if they’re purely statistics, so it’s not about squeezing more numbers on a page or in a conversation. This book provides a practical guide on how we can communicate numbers effectively. One of the techniques is helping people understand numbers through familiar comparisons or converting them into a human scale—for example, if you remember the container ship that blocked the Suez Canal last year, most of us don’t even know how big the canal is, but if instead of saying "the ship is almost a quarter-mile long" we say “imagine the Empire State Building including its tiny antenna at the top tipping over on its side and blocking the canal,” it will paint a much more vivid picture of the situation. Of course there are much more. I highly recommend it! In fact, I think it should be included in every school’s curriculum.
- I may be too old haha but I will buy it for my son. Thank you for the recommendation!