Month: May 2020

Recording

Many of you may know that since approximately September 2019, I’ve been recording conversations with people.

I’ve got a couple basic policies to ensure security.

  1. I don’t share the audio with anyone who wasn’t there. 
    1. Even in that case they don’t get the file, they’re just allowed to listen with me.
  2. I will shut it off if it’s absolutely necessary or if someone really doesn’t trust me.
    1. Legality and necessity are not the same thing.
  3. The only other person that I’ll ever share with is my wife.
    1. Girls should consider this before marrying someone other than me, unless they are also marrying their husband for access to his conversation recordings.

So more importantly, why do I do this?

For as long as I can remember, I’ve liked remembering things. Good things, bad things whatever. But my memory often fails me, or things get lost in the gaps. Most people use pictures to store memories, but pictures usually creep me out. Why are recordings the answer?

  1. Pictures are fine, but they are easy to lie in. Most people, even if they’re having an awful time, can smile for five seconds. It’s hard to lie about having a good time over 6 hours of conversation.
  2. We’ve all heard the expression “Would you like to be seen with so and so.” This could have a positive or negative connotation. You don’t want to be seen with an undesirable, and you do want to be seen with a desirable. But again, like with pictures, being seen together is easy to lie with. Rather, we should be asking ourselves, “Would you like to be heard with so and so?” Ask yourself whether your interaction with this other person reflects well on your character, this is true for desirables and undesirables.
  3. When listening to yourself in a recording you gain two things:
    1. A good way of catching ideas that you had in a moment that you lost soon after, that you perhaps said but didn’t have the time to write down.
    2. A moderately impartial perspective on yourself. You may actually be able to see and judge yourself as another person. The interests and passions you feel at the time are not clouding your judgement. Also, the fact that you are listening to a conversation without the impetus to speak gives your mind more free space to actually listen. Hopefully, this habit can be carried over to actual conversation.

Try it. Record a conversation, and listen back to it later. It’s very fun. Trust me.