"One is (not) the loneliest number"

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I liked this article.

http://archive.salon.com/mwt/feature/20 ... ndex1.html

Absolutely brilliant.

Interesting article. Sometimes I try to take a book to work to read at break times. Something about that seems to provide a challenge to others, on a subliminal level, to make sure I get damn little reading done. As a consequence where I used to read something like A Tale of Two Cities in an afternoon, or The Stand in a couple of days, it now takes sometimes weeks to finish a 300 page book because my ability to focus has been knocked out of whack by too much exposure to people like that.
A typical break room conversation ( one sided ) "Hey, you reading a book huh?" Yeah "I did that once, I think it had a monkey named George in it." That's nice "Well now that lunch is just about over I'll let you read your book"
Short of getting obnoxious to the point of looking like a rude jerk to the other non literate crew members, and risking going to the top of the layoff list, there is nothing to be done about this cretinous behavior since the likely hood of having management and co workers who get the idea that reading something other than the instructions on microwave popcorn has any benefit is close to nil.

Describes me in a nutshell.

I always bring a book to work. The bloke that sat next to me looked at me and said "a book with no pictures? Been awhile since I read one of those !"

I laughed out loud. He was a big comic book fan.

great read, and it's so true about me. i'm a loner, i spend most of my time alone but am i lonely?... well yes i am, but not because i'm alone haha. i'd say i'm not a complete loner, i do desire some social interaction and enjoy being around friends, but i definitely do need my alone time and rather enjoy being alone with my thoughts.

I like the quote from Jung that describes introverts as "misanthropic bachelor[s] with a childlike heart". I think that describes me pretty well. (though I am technically a 'bachelorette' due to my gender)

I liked that article, I might get the book.

I had to chuckle at the giant ads in the middle of the article advertising "The #1 Guide to Social Skills"

The number 1 topic

I never thought of 1 as lonely. I see this number as everything that comes together as a complex singularity, kind of like a unified theory of everything rolled into 1.

Sounds contradictory, ambiguous, paradoxical and infinite!

i share a similar view of one. in quantity it's singular, but in "personality" if you wish, it's all encompassing. it is in all things (other than zero, obviously) and is completely unique and yet is related to everything.

zero to me is the loneliest number, i almost don't consider it a number at all. it reacts like no other number, when combined (i mean when you multiply/divide) with other number it either consumes them or explodes them to infinity, and yet when added or subtracted from them has no effect. when you say one comes together as a complex singularity i somewhat agree, although i would prefer to use "singularity" for zero, but i use it in terms of a black hole. it is infinitely small, and when you combine it with something it absorbs it and consumes it in this singularity.

math is a beautiful thing... math tests, on the other hand, aren't... at least not when you've been slacking off and have to learn the entire chapter in 10hrs and 15mins

Absolutely Greyhound, it is puzzling and irritating.

i think the funny part about it is that anyone who reads knows how annoying it is to be disturbed while reading a good book, so when you ask someone if they're reading a good book, either you're annoying them, distracting them, etc. or you don't care because it's not a particularly good book.