Another Example of My Social Neurosis

I'm sitting alone in the reading room at work, reading applications. Another reader walks in and, since we're short on files to read, I give him half of my stack of twenty.

"When we finish these we can switch and do second reads," he suggests.

"Yeah, that'll keep us going for a while."

He sits down at the desk next to me and we both proceed to read. You better speed up, I tell myself. What if he finishes his ten and you're only halfway through yours? You'll look incompetent.

So I speed up. Five files later, I glance at his desk to see he's only finished two.

Crap. Slow down. You don't want him to think you're being sloppy.

Because, of course, he cares.