When do you get a person?

Question

How long does it take you to feel you "know" the person you're talking to, or are with. Is it a matter of hours, or is it a matter of answers and questions to subjects that are close to their heart? For example, can you look at someones Q & A's on here and know who they are and what they're about?

And please, no stalker / gay / desperate responses. Those responses are just not helpful.

Answer 1

People are multi-faceted and multi-layered. So, you can sometimes get to know the superficial layer of a person quite quickly. At that level it could take a few hours, or even as little as a few minutes. By the same token, by reading someone's questions and answers, you can pick up a "flavour" of that person. But if you've ever been lucky enough to begin to know someone deeply, you realize that going through those multiple facets and layers can take a lifetime. To me, one of the factors that contributes to an enduring relationship is the sense of discovery, even when you've known the other for years and years. It's that bit of mystery that keeps things alive and exciting. And the bottom line, of course, is that we can never totally know another person. There will always be hidden aspects - some perhaps hidden even to the person him/herself.

Answer 2

I can sometimes feel after looking at a person that they are going to be a good friend. I get close with people and for some reason they walk all over me so I have nobody now except my family. I really have no friends that are not blood. I dont trust anybody... I also know that within a few days I can tell if we will be friends... What is crazy is the people I start at being friends with in the begining of class never ends up being in my group when I leave. I always talk to another group. Why are peoplle so weird anymore. You cant trust anybody.. Sorry got a little off subject... Just needed to vent.

Answer 3

With age and a vivid compendium of life experiences, I can tell everything of any consequence about a person in the first fifteen seconds simply upon meeting him or her, which comes in handy for poker and in choosing whom I pay any further attention to. That is one of the rewards of wisdom . . . no longer having to waste a single precious second longer than absolutely necessary on the hopeless. On here, I have been around long enough to do about the same, with a thorough glance at their past questions and answers. I long for the day when we might select our leaders based on such a revealing set of personally and honestly expressed questions and answers.

Answer 4

I meet some people and seem to "know them" fairly quickly. Others seem to go out of the way to be opaque. Some times (unfortunately) I meet a person and almost immediately know that I do not WANT to know them at all.

As to knowing people by their answers here, there was a recent study that found people on social networking sites tend to be pretty much the way they are in real life. I'd be more willing to believe that about Yahoo Answers if most people had real pictures of themselves.

Answer 5

Well, I'd say that the woman who was married to the BTK killer probably thought she "knew" her husband. I guess the mother of John Wayne Gacy thought she knew her baby boy. I don't know if you can ever know someone else. You might get a sense of them but how much of that is a result of their authenticity? They may be just putting on a good show for you. It's hard to say.

Answer 6

I don't think you can look at a person's Q&A's and tell but... you can get a good idea. I think you'd need to meet the person and talk. Then after talking you can decide. It doesn't have to be like deep conversation...

Answer 7

Well it takes a lifetime to get to know one's innermost self.
So to get to know someone else....