Picture by Karlis Kadegis

“Hello Mr. Van Haver, how are you today?”. As the opening line of a telephone call from a bloke I’ve never been in touch with before. Am I really the only one to spot from a zillion miles away that the sole intention of such call is to sell me something? Why on earth should that line be the opening line of every single one of those calls? As far as I recall, I did not include on my LinkedIn profile “stupid enough to make any amount of smalltalk cause increased inclination to buy anything”. Not alone are those callers interfering with whatever I was considering a proper use of my time, but they are clearly stupid enough to believe that politely (the use of the word polite obviously referring to the faked intent of the sender of the message, not to the actual effect caused in the recipient) checking how I am doing today – and thereby taking up even more of the time I was not willing to give them – is going to help them reach their goal in even the slightest way.

Aaahhhh. How I enjoy a good rant every now and then.