The only thing we have in the end is perspective.

Your perspective is what makes any facts you know, any stories you tell, any truths you've discovered your own, rather than universal. In an age of Wikipedia, facts are easy to come by. Perspectives become valuable.

Seen "Julie & Julia?" It's half-interesting; the Amy Adams portion is dry as dogshit. And it's not because the character played by Amy Adams is uninteresting - she is. It's that no attempt was made to justify her existence. Her uninteresting foil of Julia Child tells me nothing about Julie. Julie's life has all the foibles that anyone's life would have… but there's nothing about her that makes me care about her. She's a stock persona plugged into a stock environment.

Now - seen 'Say Anything?' Ione Skye's character is a Rhodes scholar. She volunteers at an old folks home. She's the scream on sound effects tapes. Her dad is an embezzler going to prison. Meanwhile, John Cusack is a schlub who lives with his sister and his sister's kid, whose sole accomplishment is teaching kickboxing to small children.

Yet Cusack's character is a hoot to watch. He lives. He breathes. The movie is about his perspective. Compared to him, Ione Skye is wooden and forgettable (and heartbreakingly beautiful; hot damn that girl is something else, even now).

Don't try to be thoughtful. Don't try to be interesting. Try to show me the world through your eyes, because I can't see it that way without your help.

I used to be criticized regularly on Reddit for making it "all about me." It hurt, mostly because it wasn't true, but partially because the only way I can make you see "my" story is by showing it through my eyes. Facts aren't interesting. Meaning is interesting and meaning is a journey, sometimes self-guided, sometimes led by a tour guide. What meaning have you found for your facts? Note that I won't necessarily agree with you. I may know more facts. We'll trade facts and we'll both leave with a different understanding than we came with.

That is how one is thoughtful.

That quote up there: "Here are my completely groundless and unexamined thoughts on a subject I barely understand, reward me." Turn it on its head:

"I have no grounding in a subject I barely understand but I've been examining it. What are your thoughts?"

The former is a mandate. The latter is an invitation. By inspection, which one invites participation?

Which one invites dismantling?