communication
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We’re familiar with the phrase “comparing apples and oranges”. The problem with the phrase is that most of the time we aren’t trying to classify all the apples or all the oranges: we’re trying to classify fruit. Which means we think the difference between them doesn’t matter. But when “fruit” is defined as “red”, crisp…
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Trolling or Debating?
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3 min read
Trolling isn’t the same thing as debating. But we feel like we have to honor the troll’s arguments as valid. But we don’t.
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Sometimes a Joke Is Timeless
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3 min read
When Freud said that sometimes a cigar is just a cigar, he was bringing us back from an extreme position. It is also really important to notice what that position is in extreme contrast to. I’m not into Freud, but anyone who has taken a psychology class knows why this phrase exists. Precisely because Freud…
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Please stop saying “The Science”
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2 min read
When your child asks why she should brush her teeth, do we ever simply say “because the science says to”? Of course not. That’s ridiculous. While your kid is really trying to get out of brushing her teeth, she is also doing so because she doesn’t have any context for oral health. She hasn’t seen…
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A Note About Grievance
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3 min read
There’s something to the way we talk about the tit-for-tat of politics that deeply confuses us. The danger for us is how it narrows our understanding.
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When is a car really a car?
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2 min read
How we understand a situation influences what we think of it. Sometimes we need to change the way we classify the world around us.