Our Daily Bleg: Occupational Hazards

From a reader named Eric Robinson comes this interesting bleg. (Click here for blegging information, and send your own requests here.)

Photo: Uriba

When I’m at a party and get asked what I do (I am an architect), I always hear one of the same five responses:

+ What kind of architecture do you do?

+ Hey, you can design my dream home!

+ I like Frank Lloyd Wright, do you think he’s good?

+ My brother/father/aunt is an architect.

+ I thought about going into architecture.

All of these responses are fine, but just knowing how consistent they are, it makes me wonder in what ways I ask stereotypical questions of others.

It would be nice to avoid this by having a list of what jobs get what kinds of responses. This idea has led to many interesting party conversations — because many times, the responses are not so nice!

So here’s my bleg question: what are the typical responses you hear when you tell people what you do?

I’ll start things off. When someone asks me what I do and I tell them I’m a writer, they typically say:

+ Oh.

+ Does that mean you just make stuff up?

+ Yeah, I thought about doing that before I became a doctor/lawyer/investment banker (i.e., something productive).

+ So why do you live in New York? Couldn’t you live in Maine or Aruba or somewhere else?

+ Really? Can I have your agent’s phone number?