Vent: my coworker shamed my whole spread setup in front of 8 people

Last Tuesday at the Denver meetup, this guy named Marcus looked at my weekly log and goes 'you know that's not how Ryder does it, right?' in front of like 8 strangers. I've been journaling for 3 years and never claimed to follow any rules, but it totally killed my vibe for the rest of the night. Has anyone else had someone gatekeep their bujo layout? How do you shake off that kind of judgment?

2 comments

2 Comments

wood.john27d ago

Marcus sounds like he peaked in high school. Been there with the same exact crap at a local meetup. My go-to move is to just nod real slow and say "yep, that's why I call it my janky method" and keep flipping pages. Usually kills the awkwardness cause they don't know what to do when you agree. Then I literally turn to the person next to me and ask about their favorite pen or spreads. Shifts the spotlight off you and onto something actually fun. And if he does it again, just ask him to show his whole setup, people love that, puts him on the spot instead.

calebw5026d ago

Ain't that the truth @wood.john? Had a guy do the same thing at my last meetup, bragging about his $400 fountain pen collection like it was a job interview. I hit him with the "cool, mine's from the dollar store" and just started doodling in the margins, totally killed his vibe. That shift to asking the next person about their notebook setup works every time too, gets the real conversations rolling.