The translation, of course, is “You’re fired because you’re incompetent,” but what “Not a good fit” manages to do here is transform the feeling into something that’s much less personal. You may argue that this is good, but I would argue that it’s bad; I’d rather receive the information in a comprehensible way that doesn’t end up making him feel empty and confused afterward.
If you want to make a quiet person feel bad, tell her to smile more, as there’s nothing like being passively shamed into not meeting the American culture’s daily smile quota. The American nation is indeed one of fake laughs, put-on smiles and objectively erratic behavior to fill silences that have somehow come to mean awkwardness.
You want your professor to read it because you want to show her how good it is, and after two weeks of waiting for the grade, the paper comes back with high marks and a page-long handwritten note about how well-written and genius the thing is.
Since the glorification of all/ most of these are generally frowned upon nowadays (in the Age of Irony and Equality), people who love Hemingway secretly appreciate and/ or fantasize about the way the world used to be; about being Hemingway’s Brett, or his Catherine, or Hemingway himself…
Finally, I’ll probably want to avoid you forever if you’re the type of person who hangs out with people because they’re Cool. I accept the notion that there exist Cool and Uncool people, but contrary to your beliefs, people can be stratified in different ways. There are different categories people fall into.
You can impress me if it’s obvious to me that you’re interesting in a way that I can’t quite describe; if it’s obvious to me that you understand the world in an exciting way that I’m not fully able to comprehend. Therefore, I shouldn’t really be able to predict a good amount of your behavior, and so spending time together will be fun and interesting for me.
Facebook helps you feel embarrassed for others upon seeing them logically defeated on someone’s Wall in a political argument during which unseemly amounts of nationalism, pro life beliefs, faith and/or rage are displayed.
Customers are the gods of the food service industry, and they’re angry gods at that; when one is even slightly dissatisfied, apologies pour from over the counter in a tidal wash of discounts, refunds, coupons, sincere hopes for reconciliation and a plea to please, please don’t let this one minor mistake reflect upon our business as a whole, please come back again.
BSG: What do you think about me peeing with the door open? GF: Um… [drinks coffee]. I don’t really mind if you pee with door open. I guess I think it’s kind of funny. I don’t have a very strong opinion about it… I think I have a stronger opinion about myself peeing with the door open.
It’s cute to see people grin sheepishly and ‘admit’ to what’s on their headphones, while others’ matter-of-fact reactions give an insight into their lives – who they really are and how they’re, at that moment, perceiving the world around them.