Author: EthanS

One way to be more compatible and work with people in better ways is to watch for when you start to get defensive. There will be many warning signs that you are getting defensive, but these warning signs are unique to all people and they are hard to recognize, as they happen subconsciously. Being able to recognize when you are starting to become defensive will allow you to create a way to calm down, and there are many ways to find out what happens.

Probably the most obvious way is asking someone such as family, as they spend the most time with you and will know what happens when you get defensive. Another way is to find instances where you know that you were defensive, locate the reason why, and how you reacted. This would be a good way to find your own warning signs if you do not have anybody to talk to. This method could be flawed, as relying on your own memory might not help, as the peoples memories are not perfect.

One other way to recognize when you are becoming defensive is to know what you think about others, for example, if you think that someone is lower than you, you are probably going to be defensive if they try to give you feedback about some things. Something else that one could do is to look the setting of the place. If you are uncomfortable in an area, you are more likely to e defensive and not trust people. Knowing this can help you recognize when you are more likely to become defensive.

Finding out when you are being defensive would be beneficial in how you work with others, and doing so is would benefit others too, as if you are less likely to become defensive, they are less likely to become defensive.

People always have ideas on what the right way to change one’s behavior was, but what has been proven was how humans don’t respond well to negative feedback about the future. However, Tali Sharot has found that there is a better way to change behavior. This way is through positive feedback, as in giving immediate rewards for doing something that would benefit them in the future. This however, can lead to some problems.

The first problem is that if this really becomes widespread, people will start taking shortcuts and rewarding themselves for it. This would be a problem because this wont actually lead to any real change, but just more people feeling good about themselves. Rewarding oneself for good behavior is a good idea, however, people will still come up with ways to exploit the situation.

Another concern is privacy. One good example of this is the example of seeing who is most efficient in using their energy. This might help lead to people being more efficient with their energy, but it will also lead to data privacy issues, as this data is being shown to everybody in the neighborhood. Data privacy is an important issue for people, and if this idea of competition becomes big, some people will start opting out of the idea of this, which will lead to them not changing their behavior.

This is not to say that the idea of encouraging good behavior through instantaneous feedback is a bad idea, but just to point out minor issues associated with it.

As many people can agree, the newer younger generations do not have a close relationship with the older generation. While this does not pose a serious problem, it does affect certain parts of life. Today, we will be discussing the causes of this.
One of the first causes is technology. Technology rapidly changes, and the new generations follow that change. The new generations will spend more time on that technology, which causes them to spend less time on their relationship with older generations, which do not use technology as often, which is a problem.
Another cause is the academic competition. Many parents have the idea that their child has to be the most talented in every aspect of life, which causes them to pile more and more extracurricular activities onto their children, some of them unwanted. This not only leaves less time to be spent on maintaining their relationship with older generations, but also can build negative feelings directed at the parents, for putting so much pressure onto the new generation.
With this said, the older generations seem to have lofty ideals for the new generation, but they also put lots of pressure on the children to never mess up, while also telling children that it is okay to take risks. This can predictably lead to the weakening of ones relationship with the older generations. I think what we should do is to respect the older generation for caring about us, but also the older generation should listen to the younger generations input, instead of writing them off as too naive or stupid to know about things in the world. The younger generation actually knows a lot more than the older generations think they do, so the older generations should listen to the younger generations input.

The ideas that Victor gets in the short story “Seventh Grade,” are flawed. It is pretty obvious that Victor is trying to get Teresa to like him by impressing her, which, fair enough, is a way to get somebody to like you. The problem is his methods, which we will be talking about later, and the effect on him in general.

One way that Victor tries to get Teresa to like him is looking better. The problem his what his idea of looking better is. His friend gave him the idea that all handsome people scowl. Therefore, people who scowl are considered handsome. Victor thinks this method works after trying it out, and seeing that girls look at him more often. The problem is that this obviously does not work, as even he thought that scowling would not make him look better when his friend first described this to him.

Another thing that Victor does to get Teresa to like him is to appear more knowledgable then he really is. Specifically, pretending to know how to speak French. His teacher immediately called Victors bluff, to which Victor responds in some very uncertain and made up French. This then results in Victor being completely humiliated in the first couple minutes of class. When the bell rings, Victor is too embarrassed to even look at anyone. Although one thing has gone his way: Apparently, Teresa does believe that Victor knows French, and his teacher is nice enough to let Victor get away with it.

The problem is the effect that this has on the way other people see Victor. Contrary to Victors belief, girls are not looking at Victor because they think that he is handsome, but rather because they think he looks weird from scowling. Victor then proceeds to ensure everybody in his french class that he has no idea of what he is doing by pretending to know french. This, if continued, will lead to his reputation being destroyed. Teresa may end up liking him, but will soon realize that the way Victor behaves is all an act, which will leave without Teresa and without a good reputation.

Being honest here, there were so many times where Billy should have realized that the Landlady was crazy, and even the most naive person should have realized the Landlady was a threat.

The most obvious instance where Billy should have left immediately was when he say that there were only two names on the guest book, and when he heard that even after 3 years, the two guests were still there, which if you add up the cost, is quite strange. If he had only asked to meet one of the guests, he probably would have known for sure the Landlady is a murderer and ran away easily, as he is 17 and the Landlady is probably in her sixties.

Something that I find strange is why the woman even asked Billy to sign the guest book, which was completely unnecessary, as Billy was obviously naive and new to staying at inns. I think that in no way it was because signing the guestbook is the law because this Landlady straight up murders and stuffs all of her customers.

Something else that I find funny is that that Billy told the Landlady that he was heading to the Bell and Dragon, which is kind of an insult to her. This is because Billy is basically announcing to the Landlady that his was more inclined to go to the Bell and Dragon, which was technically a direct business competitor with the Landlady, as they were on the same street.

I think that the kidnappers should have planned the kidnapping more carefully, as they ended up losing 250 dollars. Their first mistake was choosing the wrong person to kidnap. If they had chosen a more well behaved person or even observing their potential victim more carefully, they could have been more prepared for the child’s behavior. Another mistake was that they did not even think about restraining the victim, which should have been one of the first things on their minds. This mistake caused them lots of pain, both physically and mentally. Their third mistake was choosing how to write the wording of their ransom letter. This kind of ties back to their first mistake, as if they had observed the child’s behavior, it might have occurred to them that the parents might not want to receive the child. Also, if they had changed the wording of the letter from not being able to see the child again, to knowing that the child is dead, then that might have triggered a more intense response from the parents to pay the ransom. These three mistakes changed them from earning 2000 dollars to losing 250 dollars.