I also tried a variant of this for a while in college and I generally agree with you but for me it did have some significant benefits. It caused problems in many relationships and certainly produced a lot of drama but this had an interesting and positive impact on my social sphere as a whole. The people in my life who appreciated my honesty and could deal with it got pulled closer and took the place of the friends who would rather not put up with it. What ended up happening is that all of my close friendships were almost completely free of any pretenses and this greatly strengthened our relationships. We also felt less inhibited to discuss very personal things in a candid way so this brought us closer yet. Looking back on my life I consider these friendships to be unquestionably the strongest and most meaningful that I've ever had.
When you did your experiment did you not have at least some of your relationships grow stronger because of it?
I've lived my whole life with "too much honesty" and it works just as you say. People who can't deal with honesty don't want to be around me, and I end up surrounded by a few friends that I can actually trust, instead of a bunch of phonies. My relationships have almost no drama at all.
I'm not going to say there aren't downsides, though. It makes dealing with the rest of humanity difficult because strangers still get upset. As such, I've taken to just smiling at strangers and not talking about anything of substance at all. If they try to lead it there, I generally just grin and nod no matter the topic. If they push, I give them full honesty and they either scurry away, or don't.
It also caused problems in my previous job because when someone asked a question, I'd give an honest answer instead of hedging. That made me 'unapproachable' and I took a hit on my yearly review, every year. I even made a girl cry because I told her she was wrong. When she said that a manager told her that info, I told her the manager was wrong. And he was. 100% wrong. She cried. She was really good at her job, but just couldn't handle anything outside her world view... And managers were always right, to her.
And of course, romance is tougher... Last year, I finally found a girl that is open and honest like me, and we have mutual attraction, and it's working out quite well. Most of my previous relationships died because they were based on lies. I don't blame them for that, it's just a fact.
"Last year, I finally found a girl that is open and honest like me, and we have mutual attraction, and it's working out quite well"
How do you manage the fact that you might be attracted to other women? I believe it's normal, and it's also normal that men don't speak of that to their girlfriends or wives, or give "white lies".
(I'm not talking about cheating, open arrangements or anything). What the guy in the article did is what many would want to do
Physical attraction? I'm lucky there. It doesn't affect me like most men. I don't go freaking nuts about it. Hot women are like art pieces... Great to look at. My girl? Great to be with. Much better.
If she asked me if a girl was hot, I'd answer. (And have.) I don't go around hollering about how beautiful women are, though. Stating the obvious has never been a fault of mine.
When you did your experiment did you not have at least some of your relationships grow stronger because of it?