The Reverse Five-Dollar Shake Test

There’s a scene in Pulp Fiction where John Travolta and Uma Thurman’s characters are sitting in a restaurant booth, talking about “uncomfortable silences.” 

The one-way conversation from Thurman goes,

Don’t you hate that? Uncomfortable silences. 

Why do we feel it’s necessary to yak about bulls*** in order to be comfortable? 

That’s when you know you’ve found somebody special. When you can just shut the f*** up for a minute and comfortably enjoy the silence.

I’ll challenge her take, but just a little. 

My favorite people are the ones who don’t need to BS for BS’ sake. 

They also tend to be the ones who skip right over the BS and will talk, at length, about all sorts of interesting stuff. 

I call this my reverse $5 shake test because of this scene. If you don’t know the $5 shake reference, see the video below.

I want to know, be friends with, work with, etc. with – people who don’t need to BS. And if they have something interesting to talk about, they can’t shut up about it. Like a $5 shake at a curious restaurant that gets you ready to dance.