Call the Fucking Vatican

In his conversation with Peter Attia, Michael Easter talks about his memory when he was working in Esquire as an intern. He was given the assigment to figure out how much money the Pope makes.

Young Michael takes over the task, does a bunch of things: online research, reaching out to some Catholic academic etc. Finally he submits the results to his editor. The editor tells him to meet in the conference room in 5 minutes.

He looks at Michael, and says: "No... no, no, no". And goes: "If you want to know how much money the Pope makes, you call the fucking Vatican".

The point is, if you want to know something about a person, or a thing, you go ask that person. You go to the source of the information. You don't do endless online research, read infinite amount of news, look at the person's social media, look at their photos, check your chat history to find nuances... You go fucking ask the person.

I loved and related with this story because I've also been guilty of not calling the Vatican many times. Michael Easter also takes the metaphore from a fact checking perspective to really check the source but I especially related with this regarding my personal life and decisions. In fact as an introvert sometimes it's so difficult to call someone, or ask them directly about something. Be it to know how one person feels about you, about an event... Even a restaurant reservation is sometimes a hassle for me and I find myself looking for alternative restaurants that take online bookings. I run away from asking things.

This is a reminder for me and to you to "call the fucking Vatican" if need be.