If you don’t listen to music, you’re probably a weirdo

I got out of the Air Force in October of 2015. Thankfully, my last hoorah was a two-week vacation…er, work trip to stunningly beautiful Western Germany. And by western, I mean like 1 kilometer from the Netherlands border. The countryside is very much like the Midwest: agriculture fields everywhere, with some forests. It is a lovely area, and I can see how people can get sucked into moving there.

We went all over the countryside there, but there was a catch: I was supposed to go with my direct supervisor who I really liked. When we went on trips, we’d hit museums and cultural things, and it was awesome. Instead, I ended up going with a couple of guys I didn’t really know very well.

Well, we were cruising across the countryside one day, and the car was quiet. I had my iPod with me and asked what kind of music they liked. One dude was quite a bit older than me, and that other guy was my age, so I wasn’t expecting anything stupid or weird.

But then, and I mean almost in unison like it was choreographed, they both told me they didn’t listen to music. Wtf.

Well, I threw on The Eagles and stuck my arm out the window. Not liking music is just so weird, man. As in, they didn’t say that they didn’t care what I put on; they both said that they didn’t listen to music at all.

The moral of the story

I don’t think there really is a moral of the story today. More than anything, I just really think that people who don’t listen to music are weirdos. As in, really weird. It just isn’t natural. Throughout the rest of the trip (that incident was on day two or something), I realized these guys were just odd as hell.

If something seems odd or off, it probably is. No, this isn’t a trope about self-defense or being a sheepdog or something dumb like that. It’s more business advice than anything. If you are getting little cues that a client or potential client is a weirdo or is hard to deal with, then they are.

Also, go to Cologne and check out the cathedral. It will blow your mind, and I mean it. In fact, just peruse all of Germany and the surrounding countries. They are stunning.

And also, learn to trust your gut with people. Most of the time, it’s right.