is that afternoon worth it?

London's first coffee house, opened sometime around 1651 

I am rarely one to stand someone up,

but I do have a very difficult time of actually committing to the interaction in the first place,
whether between friends, or responding to messages, be it phone/email/text/carrier pigeon.
(There is nothing more desirable to me than to declare email bankruptcy,
and I am comforted in the fact that some of my favorite success models share a similar inclination.)

I love talking with interesting people, and I especially treasure friends coming together over good food.
But I often find meetings, hanging out and socializing exhausting, making me unproductive,
and always worried that I should be getting concrete stuff done instead.

This summer has been full of coffee-shop meetings,
connecting with various members across the community,
trying to figure out how to revive an group that has good intentions, but one that is a difficult sell.

And then I think about the role coffee houses have played throughout history--
the salon culture in Vienna during the heyday of the Enlightenment,
its later reiteration in Paris at the birth of the modern era at the cusp of the new century,
its role throughout centuries as a place for people to congregate, read and wright, exchange ideas...

This post hit a sensitive nerve, and has strengthened my recent resolve to eliminate my flakiness,
especially since I am the first to bemoan the lack of real, authentic connection.
How can I fault my environment for being disinterested, when I am the first one to deflect connections?

Will I see you tomorrow?

There is no greater indicator of future behavior than the answer to this question.

Fly-by, drive-by, anonymous, see-you-sucker interactions are easy to start, easy to be disappointed by, hard to count on when it comes to civility or a career.

We work to create the alternative. Masks off, snarkiness set aside, committed to long haul. That's the connection that the connection economy is built on.

via {seth godin}
photo via {pinterest}