Girl on Guy with Aisha Tyler #7: Paul F. Tompkins

Aisha Tyler: We are not, as a culture, good at being present. We are not good as a culture in being satisfied. If you think about it, the way we measure success in this country is by growth. Like, its never good enough, we gotta grow more, we gotta have more stuff…

Paul F. Tompkins: In comparison, you’re saying, “Here’s what this guy has, I don’t have that so I must not be doing well. This is the baseline.” I am the baseline. If anybody is above me, they’re doing well and I’m not doing well.

AT: And I, ah, yeah, I remember I used to really compare myself with guys who started earlier than me. Like, if I had only started when I was 18, or if I had only started when I was 15 I would be ‘here’ now and…

PFT: You don’t work at a bank. That’s not how it works…

AT: It really is not a meritocracy, this business…

PFT: No…

AT: There is no…

PFT: And time has nothing to do with it. It not like 5 years in and you get a promotion…

AT: Exactly, and you only move upward and you don’t move downward… You can go up and plummet to the bottom and nothing that you’ve done before means anything…

PFT: Several times…

AT: Yes, repeatedly. Like in any other business you could say, “Well here are my previous jobs so I’m not going to take a position any lower than this one, because this is what I’m qualified to do.” In this business they’d be like, “We don’t give a shit what you did before, you know, now you get to be the third lead in Booty Call"... which I might take under certain circumstances.

Girl on Guy with Aisha Tyler #7: Paul F. Tompkins / 8/30/11