The Conference Call
The date is the 30th of August 2022. The meeting starts at 2pm. Most of the participants are in the office using the conference room. Three of my colleagues and I are working from home. We can see them, but they cannot see us. It is going to be a long ride... At around 3:50 we took a dozen of minutes break. The third teleworker has left us. I am now the third of two virtual players.
People are getting exhausted. The discussion continues... All of a sudden, they started looking in the direction of the camera where the television is. They also started indistinctly talking about it. It seemed important! Curious and confused, I unmuted my microphone and asked, "Sorry, are you looking at something on the screen?". I triggered a wave of laughter. Some of them are extremely loud! One of them answered with a sarcastic tone, "No!...".
Confusion? Panic? Fear!? I don't know what I felt. But I felt something. Something intense. Seconds later, notifications started popping. The others are asking about the matter. The experience was mutual.
Calmly thinking about it afterwards, I took a moment to borrow their perspective. The journey was three hours long. They were probably drained more than we are since they had to be there. They collectively wandered with their monkey brains. Looking at... Was it an insect? Or maybe is it the screen saver of the TV?! Or a picture on the wall?... They knew, we didn't know. It is not worth sharing, they thought. But how would they know? How would we know that they didn't know? That's not what a depleted mortal can (not) do.
Over and out,
AA