The ritual is just extra work that gets mistaken for deeper meaning. A good playlist with proper headphones gets you the same focus without pretending a scratched slab of plastic is some sacred object. Folks just like having something to fiddle with while the music plays, and that’s fine, but don’t confuse it with better listening.

Dodged a bullet there, honestly. Fourteen pages about one coffee means he was already writing the screenplay in his head before you even sat down. I get that people want to be clear about their feelings but that's not clarity, that's a red flag wearing a thesaurus. If he put that much energy into analyzing your laugh after 45 minutes, imagine what he'd do after three months of actual problems. You basically got a free preview of his whole deal, and the preview was a horror movie. Block the doc, block the number, and go get another coffee somewhere you can laugh loud without worrying about the review process.