Today’s post is a three-in-one post tied together with a theme of utility. There are three stories, and all of it happened today. Anyone familiar with the notations of set theory will understand the title – that Globalization, Socializing and Homelessness are part of the set of post called Utility.

Globalization = Role Reversal

This was what happened to me at EasyWay: A caucasian chick was behind the counter…

She: 你好 (Ni Hao)
Me:　[Ignores condescension] Hi, I’d like a Jasmine Milk Tea with pearls please
She: Oh ok. $4.70 please [proceeds to make tea]
She: [hands me tea] 你要袋子吗？.. Oh sorry, do you want a bag?
Me: 我明白中文 (I understand Mandarin) [gives her the death stare]
She: 吓死我了 (Scared me to death) I thought you didn’t understand Mandarin and I stuffed up
Me: [gives a wtf stare and walk away]

Then I walk down two blocks, and saw a Boost juice bar. I nearly stabbed myself in the thigh. Anyone who knows me knows that my utility preference is u(Boost)>u(EasyWay). Damn, if I had walked through earlier, I’d have seen the Boost.

Also, another thing that interested me was the role reversal. Most readers know that I find it very condescending when people greet me “Ni Hao”. It’s like saying “look, I know your language, and I’m displaying how awesome I am”. But today the role’s reversed. I’m the condescending one, in today’s case. Role reversals do not bode well with my ego. I suffered a disutility, and managed to walk away with an injured pride.

Socializing
Speaking of disutility, today, once again, I willingly subjected myself to some disutility, for the sake of future utility. I forced myself out of my comfort zone once more, and socialized with other people. Whilst initially I found it hard to talk random shit with strangers, I found out, short of taking Paxil, there was an easier way out – the Rajesh Koothrapali way.

The thing about alcohol is, when imbibed with an empty stomach, it causes really strange sensations. All it took was a bottle of Smirnoff, and I started feeling nauseated. But it did increase my willingness to talk, and at the end of the day, I’m glad I did in fact, talk to so many people.

I learnt quite a bit, with this rather elderly gentleman, who talked at lengths about rationality and irrationality; entrepreneurship and creative industries. We would have gone on if not for the fact that I needed to piss badly.

So, two bits of disutility (1- getting out of my comfort zone; 2- having a bottle of Smirnoff black on an empty stomach) led to quite a bit of utility in the end. Some call that karma.

Homelessness
And speaking of karma, as I was walking back from the Hive meeting, I crossed under a bridge and somethings caught my eye. There were a group of homeless teenagers, lying huddled around a small fire. It’s quite visible that they’re very very young people. One girl came up to me and asked for money.

Its the first time since I lived in Australia, that someone had came up to beg for money. And so I did the next best thing – I didn’t give her much money. I gave her $3, and I gave a sleeping homeless teenager the rest of all of my change (about $6)

My reasoning is simple. If simply begging would net the teenagers money, begging would be a job to them. It should not be. The simplest, most utilitarian rational act to do would be to give someone who wasn’t expecting any money.

Yes, I know it is cruel to use cold hard logic in the face of someone’s miserable plight, but that was the best I could do, with some forethought to future actions and future utilities of the homeless kids. Sometimes you can’t save them all – it’s their karma, succintly put.

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