Conversations with a “stranger”

I reached out to a wicked smart engineer I used to work with to see if he could help me out with a project I was looking to work on. Him and I barely spoke when we worked together. Even at startups, sales and engineers rarely mingle except at those awkward holiday parties.

Anyways…

We set up a time to chat and he wasn’t able to chat. This happened twice until he broke the news to me that one of his best friends died. He messaged me saying he was free to chat and I said: “let’s chat next week it’s all good.” Which led to him being vulnerable and telling me about his buddy. His description of his buddy reminded me a lot of myself so I wanted to share.

This is what he said:

“He was one of 3 of us who lived really hard, but 2 of went on to try and do something with ourselves, but he had no plans of stopping that lifestyle. Had a successful little carpentry company, which gave him time and money to keep the party going. Died while smoking a bowl taking a break in a threesome, soooo…kinda went out how he wanted. Still sucks, but would’ve been worse if he was laid up dying in a hospital.”

And this is what I said:

I would never use haha in a situation like that but your friend sounds like someone I would’ve loved to know and hang out with. There’s really no better way to go out than that - like you said, a slow painful death is way worse. At least you know it was quick and now he’s somewhere partying with legends.

I’m somewhere in the middle of wanting to still be a fool and successful. I’d rather die laughing than die rich.

Not sure of your view on tattoos but you and your other homie should get something for him. When my best friend Natalie passed away I got “stay north” on my index finger - it was her way of saying people who don’t live north of sunset or trash lol - she was a total rich bitch and not a day goes by where I don’t think of her.”

We ended up chatting for a while but not once did we chat about the original “idea” I was reaching out to him about.

I do ❤️ Money but I ❤️ Human Connection waaaaaayyyyyy more.