I realized around two years ago that one of the only ways to achieve success in life is through having connections. Success largely depends on running into certain people. I unfortunately realized this too late. Since then, I am now only befriending people in the hopes that they would give me something in return (ie jobs, clout, academia, etc). There are people who I hang out with, and buy drinks and gifts for just because I think they are useful to have as friends. I even mark down their birthdays to appear like a good friend who cares about them. I fucking hate living like this and the dishonesty eats me up inside, but it feels like my choices are slim. The idea that you can just apply to a cushy job, or start a cool promising project on your own is a delusion. You need to meet people who already have something going on, and then you need to worm your way into their lives. I also try to never make any of these friends meet each other. College/uni is a great place to enroll in just for this purpose. I am sure some of my fellow zoomers here can relate to this post. Any thoughts?
Yeah this is completely true and unfortunately is something I am not involved in as a 20 year old NEET living at home. Back in high school I burnt out pretty severely in my academics and began to resent the idea of even going to college as I thought I would suffer the same way I was in high school with the workload and all of the studying. But now at 20 and being completely isolated I started to realize that one of the most important if not the most important part of going to university is to physically be around people of your age and to be in a community where you can socially interact and create long term relationships with people and build networks with them.
>>34151388That's cool and all but you shouldn't resent them, you should have fun doing it
>>34151388>I am now only befriending people in the hopes that they would give me something in return (ie jobs, clout, academia, etc). There are people who I hang out with, and buy drinks and gifts for just because I think they are useful to have as friends. I even mark down their birthdays to appear like a good friend who cares about them.How very very sad it must be to be you
>>34151388Okay but you are going to "network" with other useless college kids. Even if you know them they can't actually get you a job anyways. They can get you a referral at best but that's no guarantee. So basically you are jumping through hoops with zero tangible benefit.
>>34151731For now
>>34151388Success actually depends on what your definition of success is. You might define success as having a lot of money so then it makes sense to do what you're doing. But for me it's having a gf and people who care about me and celebrate my birthday for example, that is earned by being a genuine person. Genuine means one who is honest, one who doesn't use you for an ulterior motive. Rarely gifts are given. Very rarely. Aiming to get gifts from others will most often land you disappointment.So yeah dude, but you're American, so your society sucks anyway. I'm in the Netherlands where people are genuinely nice to each other.
