I miss the days of having long-form discussions with 1 or 2 other people who really wanted to dive deeply into an idea and really discuss it. This could be technical, it could be about media, it could be about an event, it could be about a pure idea. These all have the possibility to be interesting, if they are up your alley.

What I find frustrating is looking at how quickly so many discussions are about trying to reach a "terminal judgment" or an obfuscating reduction instead of reaching understanding or discussing the potential reasoning within.

I was reminded of this due to a few conversations, yesterday, which were of either of these flavours, and then looking at online conversations, today, which are mostly the uninteresting sort.

I miss people who wanted to have these kinds of conversations, could have these conversations, and could do so with a good mix of speaking and listening. The rare time I find one of these conversations, I worry that I speak too much ("am I the ass hole" or is this person not interested) or too little (do I seem disengaged or am I not properly involving my perspective).

A nice thing about this being a very small group is that it means that you can also afford to retreat on a point when you realize it isn't good, and it doesn't change the dynamic of the group, nor the flow of the conversation.

Ah well, our culture has very little of this left. I know that I am just waxing nostalgic about a different era but I am not sure there is a problem with that, given that our current era isn't giving me much else to think about,
...Nights