Two months ago I attended a huge technology related event. The place contained more than 500 attendees, some very young, some others more mature.
At breakfast and lunch I looked for people I knew who shared the same interest I have. When I was unsuccessful in getting together with any of them I would look for an empty chair in a table with people my age or older. My intention to hear from them about industry trends and mainly business.
Much to my surprise, when trying to establish conversations about business strategies, modes, recent experiences and such; the topics would immediately switch to technical stuff of popular sports. I felt out of place when two or three of them started talking about the new guy(s) in the local team: names and last names were mentioned but none of those I'd recognize. I felt like an idiot when one of them asked my opinion about how the team would make this season; I felt blushing trying to answer a very simple question about something most of them knew about. I don't even remember my answer, just babbled about -as politely as I could- the unimportance of such topic to me.
They carried on, excluding me from the conversation from that point forward. I do not think any of them believed me when I pointed out there were way more important developments in our world than a sports team, whether local or not.
How is it that a “The Yankees won the series” headline is more attractive than knowing 700 people got their job back yesterday? Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy success at sports and arts, but it is enjoyable when I or a member of my family or even a friend, or someone I know personally wins. But a bunch of unknowns?
Come on! Let's go back to what is really important in this life, that's the first step to fix the mess we've dumped our world in.
What was the score? ...or maybe I should ask first: what was the sport?
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