Preliminary Questions
Do you live within a thirty-minute radius/are you comfortable commuting to Murray Hill or elsewhere in Manhattan to hang out with me?
[REDACTED]
Are you crazy?
Can you supply a personal website or social media profile?
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Once I review your application, I will reach out to have a more formal, sit-down interview to be my friend in Manhattan. This interview will be videotaped and I will be posting the footage on social media. Are you able to report to Manhattan and spend at least an hour for the interview?
Open Questions
Why are you filling out this questionnaire?
A friend sent this to me saying she found it on the streets of bushwick. I am intrigued
How many "close friends" (by close friends I mean people that you see more than twice a month if they live in the tri-state area or if they are a long-distance friend that you speak with at least twice a month) do you have?
~20
Do you listen to Billie Eilish? If so, why?
Not much but nothing against her. Find her music a bit simple and feel I'm not the target demographic
It's Saturday morning! What time are you up and what do you want to do with the day?
You think I keep a schedule?? Some saturdays, up at six to run mountains. Others, hungover waking up at noon to cuddle with my boys and unpack the night. I want to spend the day adventuring.
Have you ever had an existential crisis? How did it come about and what was your ultimate takeaway from it?
Of course. Who hasn't. What are we here for if not to probe, and in probing find meaning is created, not given.
You are at a party and a topic comes up that you could go on and on and on about that nobody else knows anything about. What is the topic and would you talk about it or not talk about it?
Ultrarunning! And predictive processing. And postmodernism. I would give my concise pitch on ultrarunning and see how it's received. Would go on if there are meaningful questions that are less about training and more about motivation.
What do you think about feminism? How did you come to that conclusion?
Feminism is fine, an important facet to recognize, but my general take is that we've spotlighted social movements a bit too much at the expense of larger societal ills. Is this a priveleged take? Sure. Does feminism matter? Sure. But race/gender discourse is really rooted in classism, the subsuming social inequality. Income inequality and global poverty are more the focus of my attention and efforts.
If there was an alternate reality in which you had a debilitating, life-altering addiction, what would you be addicted to?
Adrenaline.
What are your dreams?
I dream of a world that is governed by art and expression, where society has fulfilled its needs through science and technology and shifted its focus to meaning, connective human experience, and art as a mode of communication.
Do you believe in ethical consumerism or is it a drop in a giant well that has already been dug by multinational corporations so it doesn't matter?
I think that's a bit of a false dichotomy. It's a drop in the giant well but the drop itself still has merit. Individual behavior can steer business and business can steer individual behavior--there's a constant interplay
Multiple-Choice Questions
What qualities are most important to you in a friend
What is the worst thing on this list
Work is:
Which poet's writing do you most connect with?
Do you feel like you've lived one life or lots of lives?
How do you feel about answering all these questions:
Aristotle once said; "my friends, there are no friends." How do you feel about that:
Essay Question
Please describe a friend breakup you have gone through. If you haven't gone through a friend breakup, please explain why you think you have never gone through a friend breakup. Outline a major friendship in your life and explain why it is successful.
I'm not going to write an essay for this but it was fun to fill out. Any chance to reflect can have merit. Good luck in your friend project. I find what has made for successful friendships in my own life is a combination of shared experience, shared aims, and a sense of understanding and being understood, even if in quotidian ways. We are evanescent scintillae in a glistening cosmic sea, and in seeking to perceive and know the Other we can better grasp the grandiose Whole.