Detached From Reality

Reality can be of different types and today I had to realize I'm detached from reality in a certain way. You can have your own reality in your head, which can be real or just imaginary and there can be a totally different reality out there that you face, when you go somewhere you've never been before.

Sad Reality

This morning I had to take care of some official business that my dad has outsourced to me because he had no patience to take care of it earlier this week. I showed up at the office right at the opening hour as I've been told there will be a crowd later, so I thought let's get this done and over with in the morning and have the rest of the day for other tasks as wasting time in waiting rooms is not something I enjoy.

The minute I opened the office door and looked around, the emergency bell in my head started to ring, which is hardly ever wrong. I had a feeling that things are not going to go as smoothly as I am used to and in a few minutes I got the confirmation that my first impression was right.

Imagine an office, where time has stopped decades ago. There were two desks almost as old as my poor self, covered with waxed canvas, but the most concerning thing that made the emergency bell ring in my head was the lack of computers. Where there's no 21st century IT equipment, things may not go as planned. There was one laptop, turned back to the lady, which served to play music aired by the local radio station 😳

After greeting the two ladies in the office, I stated my business and one of them started to tell me about the process to follow in order to get the documents I needed. There was a fee to pay, which I was aware of, but not the amount, so when the lady told me how much I have to pay, I knew I didn't have that much cash in my wallet. So I asked if I can pay by card, which was kind of funny as how could they have a POS when there were no computers, right? Lucky me, the bank was at 3 minutes walk, so I went quickly to the ATM to get some cash.

When I got back, things went smoothly, if I don't count the time I spent waiting for the nice lady to fill out a few forms, register my request to a couple of registers, write and stamp the receipt by hand, create and write a member ID by hand, glue the photo on it and so on.

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Detached From Reality

While waiting for the documents to be ready, I could not take my mind off the situation. All I could think of was how easy it would be to handle matters digitally. This was a non profit organization, so obviously money is tight, otherwise the office would have looked differently, but we live in the digital era, where connecting to the world has to happen one day, rather sooner than later.

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Image by Ag Ku from Pixabay

We're used to dealing with things digitally for the obvious reasons and we are also in the business of supporting and building a decentralized future. Once you see the advantages, it's hard to go back. Yet, the world that these two ladies were working in, looked like an other universe.

On Hive we make transactions that take seconds and can reach almost every corner of the world, every single day. We have decentralized finance systems, smart contracts, NFT's, liquidity pools, you name it. The world is moving towards a cashless society which can be CBDC but we hope it's going to be crypto. El Salvador is a good example for that and not the only one.

When I started my post I wanted to prove how detached I am from reality, because not knowing such offices exist, but while writing it, I had to realize that most likely the ladies are detached from reality too as most likely they don't know what we are doing in crypto or where the world is heading. Or better yet, how many realities are there? I guess the answer is not so simple.

The good thing in all this story is that this is an exception, I mean there are not many offices like this and if this one would have been of major importance, things would have been very different.

When basic things are lacking and things are turning from bad to worse, frustration can reach unimaginable levels, yet these two ladies were as nice and helpful as humanly possible.

Basically this is neither rant, nor complaining, I just wanted to write this down as I think we all go through something similar.

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21 comments
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Reality comes in many forms and experience (and observations) show just how different "the real world" can be for people who interact with the world (physical documents & money vs. digital documents and payment systems).

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Well, I'd say the real world itself can contain many realities, if you understand what I mean.

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Living in the same country as you, I have obviously encountered this situation. At the same time, we can see the changes in Romania, even if so late. I understand that now almost 2 billion euros of EU money is allocated for digitization and I hope it will be used better than in the past.

There are so many parallel realities in our country, when we see a new one we remember that they exist.

I like your Binance card, it's the same as mine, but... definitely much "heavier"!

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Honestly I can't complain as government offices here are decent, they don't give you the runaround and you can take care of things in a short time. But this one somehow has fallen of the grid and stayed in the middle ages. I jut hope things can change for them too as working in those conditions is a struggle, a waste of time, not to mention efficiency. And I also hope those funds will reach the appointed destination and not some private pockets, as it usually happens.

I like your Binance card, it's the same as mine, but... definitely much "heavier"!

Well, I don't have much on my card yet as I'm not spending my earnings, I'm still in the building and investing period, but it's nice to have it in case something happens 😇

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Obviously, it was a joke. I see you are building and investing now and you have my admiration for the way you are doing it. I use the card more often, it has helped me a lot (I think I will regret it later but I have to "live in the moment").

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Or better yet, how many realities are there?

We each have a different reality, which everyone else will never fully know about. But at the same time, we share it in part with others.

The true reality is nature though. Cities, and the reality in our own little worlds is what we make of it :)

This post has been manually curated by the VYB curation project

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I have seen so many businesses like this as though they are stuck in a time warp. We in many ways are so far ahead of the majority in how we do things and how we think.

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Exactly. I felt like going back in time, but at least I was treated well and I appreciate that more than anything else. And yes, we're ahead of the majority and I'm glad I'm part of it.

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5 fingers are not the same. Everyone lives in a different reality. May it be from our beliefs or simply due to external circumstances like the ladies you mentioned. I notice the same theme daily. Get to talk to all sorts of people when I am at the front desk...and boy o boy, sometimes it pisses me off haha

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I don't envy you honestly as working with people is the hardest, even if you have nerves made of steel. People can be difficult and many don't understand their reality is not the real reality 😀

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(Edited)

well at least there was no FT1P (Fali ti jedan papir = You're missing one paper) the common thing when dealing with our government institutions :)

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Wait as I was lucky. My dad went there empty handed and full of optimism on Monday, thinking that they can print the needed document out in one minute for him. Then reality kicked in, he was told to bring copies of 3 documents, a photo and some original documents. So I was prepared as he has given me all those in a folder, otherwise I would have been put through a bigger shock 😂

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The governmental structures are always slow with development and still doing a lot with papers and forms. Luckily in UK majority now digital so we can do it online. But for the filled application forms we need to send them with past with photos of some additional documents.

I hope you have sorted the stuff for your father, I usually do the same for my mother's paperwork.

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This was not a governmental institution and those are not slow around here anymore. Everything is digitized here and they are working together, so you don't need 10 papers from 12 things.

This was a non profit organization and yes, everything is sorted and I don't have to deal with them till next year, when I only have to pay a fee, but now I know to go prepared with cash :)

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I like to play video games, watch movies/TV series, read books to detach (escape from) reality, when I need it. I often like to stay in it. I just go out into the nature, and I sit down for hours with my Harris's hawk on my arm.

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The CBDC reality is not one I am looking forward to for sure. As well though, it’s difficult to deal with situations like this where they don’t have access to computers to speed up these things. Granted, I think it’s also likely a training and comfort level as well by the sound of it.

In all we are in a tricky situation between two worlds. One world where things were a lot freer financially as far as buying and selling things for cash and the digital future where things are far more easily tracked and traced. Let’s hope we can introduce a lot more privacy into all of this shit!

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Granted, I think it’s also likely a training and comfort level as well by the sound of it.

No, trust me, it's all about lack of funds in this case.

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