I was attending this stats module and we needed to do a project either individually or in pairs. Either way, there was no difference in the workload. I decided to do it alone to avoid the unnecessary hassle of having to meet up and stuff. Well, eventually, we all realized that we were all missing out on something as we got results that didn’t seem right.
Time went by and the deadline was drawing all the more closer. Then one day, after lecture, this guy approached me and asked if I wanted to do the project together because he wasn’t getting the right results too. I agreed, only because it was hard for me to say “no”. When we discussed, he pointed out some points (I’ll leave out the details), and through that, I somehow reached “enlightenment”. Finally, things were brightening up, and we were at the final stage of collating the answers.
In the final answer sheet, I input my part of the answers and sent it to him. Then, he texted me “I thought we were just discussing the answers and not doing the project together? Perhaps there were some miscommunication error..” At first, I must admit, I did feel a little cheated because the answer did came largely from me, but after that I just thought “it’s okay, without his input I wouldn’t be able to get to the answer too.” I chose to think of it as miscommunication rather than perhaps, self-centredness. He kept apologizing, and expressed his wish for our friendship to continue. After cooling myself down and thinking it through, I still declined because it was seriously getting awkward during lectures so I thought a quick way of resolving this was just to return to the old days.
Either communication error or self-centredness, I do not know. Well, but analysing this in an ES2007S way, it stems from either a lack of communication skills or lack of EQ. To me, having the truth blurred in this case is a bliss, but what would you do if you were me? Any better suggestions? Personally I thought there would be a better way around all this.
