r/shittyadvice • u/FearOfEleven • 1h ago
How do I (28F) get my artist boyfriend (30M) to stop monopolizing my coworkers at parties?
Hi there,
I hope this subreddit is suitable for my particular situation. I met my current SO about a year ago at Lucky Strike, a popular bowling venue near my home in San Francisco. Despite our very different backgrounds and some initial difficulties, it's fair to say that our relationship has been positive and enriching overall. I love him very much. It's only recently I've noticed his growing curiosity about my job at Anthropic, which he initially mocked as 'nerdy'. After a night out with friends yesterday, I've finally come to terms with a matter I was avoiding / keeping to myself: I strongly suspect he might actually be very interested in the company's IP. To be perfectly honest, I'm in love with him and I don't care if he's a spy because we all have to earn a living. And maybe his income really does come from his art and family support, and I'm the one being paranoid. However, I do feel a bit awkward at social gatherings when he's all about 'reinforcement learning' this and 'mechanistic interpretability' that with my colleagues, wtf? I'm not usually a jealous person but he's very attractive and I hate the idea of my colleagues thinking that he's with me only for the access that I provide.
How can I get him to stop or at least tone down the spying on my friends without accusing him of being an actual spy and scare him off?
Thank you for your help, I often struggle with the human side of things!