And so it goes with God

Firstly, Spoiler Alert. If you havent watched the movie / read the book, please do. It is worth it!

Secondly, thank you Rohan for pushing me into penning this down.

So I have been thinking about realism ever since I saw that movie.. It was one of those moments when all the chatter in your head gets silenced for a bit and you feel  liberated afterwards.. similar to when I watched Forrest Gump. I think it is pretty close to the feeling of "elevation" that  Jonathan Haidt mentions in the Happiness Hypothesis.

Anyways, getting to the point -

In the movie, Pi tells us the other more gruesome version of the story... and then he asks 

"So which story do you prefer?" 

and my dear critical brain immediately asked me 

"So which story is real?"

The more realistic story is definitely the gruesome version as it doesnt not have mysterious islands that ate people up, but then the movie implicitly asked me another question.

"Does it matter which story is real? Which one do you prefer?" 

After a pause, a voice inside my head said quietly "No it doesn't matter. And well, I do prefer the tiger story." All the other voices nodded in agreement and then became peacefully silent. :)

In the movie, Pi said
"And so it goes with God!"

Indeed! 

Always ask / find out what the other person wants..

And put a lot of effort into finding out where you can add value.

Gives you a negotiating edge and lets you tailor your pitch accordingly. 

Seems quite obvious eh? As I learnt recently, it tends to slip our mind when we get too caught up in trying to get our idea across.. which we tend to do when we are really passionate about something.

So when you are really passionate about something and want another person to join you, make sure you actively slot in some "listening time". (Not so obvious now perhaps? :) )