To Do & Be in New York

If you've lived in New York City for any given time, you may instantly recognize when engaging in small talk that one of the first sentences that comes out of any one's mouth is the infamous question, "So, what do you do?"
For New Yorkers, the question of "What do you do?" is a normal and an essential part of any respectable small talk. It's up there as, "Hi, my name is John, and how are you?" In fact many times, you'll find out what someone does before you catch their name.
This question may seem intrusive and forward to NY's Western or Southern-region neighbors - where the question may never arise - at least not in the first 30 seconds of a conversation, but for New Yorkers it's about being efficient. In a big city there's only a few minutes for one to size up the situation and conclusively decide if talking to that person is worth the time to pursue. Answering the question of what one does can be very telling (so it's believe).
"What do you do?," tells, whether the person has a job or not and, then, does he/she make serious cash or not. Okay, maybe that's a cynic's view but New York is an expensive place to live and to live well. On the flip side, New York is also an extremely interesting place, where one can practically do any vocation of their choice. So, with a more humane view, questioning about what people do also tells us how fascinating they are, how creative they are, how adventurous, ambitious, or wildly strange they are.
You see, when you live in NYC, you quickly realize that this is a place where one does; it's not a place for one to just easily be. There's too much stimuli. Doing is no doubt fun, exhilarating and motivating. But it can also be taxing, overwhelming, and wreck havoc on being in touch with one's natural state of just being. To just "be" in NYC is very tough. Because somehow the "do" of the city nags you, and the word, "should" forms in your thoughts. "I should be doing;" even, "I should be being" takes on an active voice. Only NYC can take being and turn it into doing.
In short, after you live in New York City, you become a doer no matter how much you try to resist it. So the question of, "what do you do?" is quite logical and sincere because once a person lives in New York City for a while, doing becomes their natural state of being.