I recently overheard an exchange that drew my attention to a previously unexplored aspect of verbal communication, which I will refer to as Exchange Structure. Though such structures can be graphically represented numerous ways, I didn’t spend time evaluating the options, and simply chose the first that came to mind. It’s all very straightforward, with…
It’s irritating when people use terms 1. that could be replaced with fewer-syllable terms without loss or alteration of the conveyed meaning. 2. they understand only vaguely or not at all. Regarding the 1st point, candidate term-pairs guilty of this offense cannot merely be synonyms, for most synonyms differ subtly in meaning, usually through differences…
When we’re surrounded by what we want, we cease to want it. The trivial explanation is that the desire to have is incompatible with the condition of having. “Listen hear, little nipper! You can’t want to have what you already keep!” This is, however, a pathetic, semantics-fueled avoidance of the following truth: when one is…
Contrary to the law of midday meals, some things hardly need to be worked for in order to be earned. They can be earned, in other words, for a lesser price than it seems they are worth. In even other words, so as to balance the books of the linguistic expression economy, a part of…
For those who are curious about the subjective and malleable nature of reality, yet wish to abstain from experimenting with hallucinogens, consider this sober-friendly mental-tease: Stand facing a digital countdown at an angle, such that the two rightmost vertical segments of the 7 segment display are hidden from view. When the number lit is 9,…
Efforts to use seldom seen people as sensors of one’s own changes in cognitive function are complicated by the fact that observations of changes in one’s appearance trump those of subtler changes by virtue of being easier to articulate and obliging what is nothing short of a social expectation. This would be a point undeserving…
If you pour a cup of tomato sauce into a 50 lb bag of chili powder and thoroughly mix, the spiciness of the combination will be very nearly equal to the spiciness of chili powder alone. This exemplifies one of three regimes which, together, I believe, account for all action–>effect pairs. I’ll call these regimes…
People can elicit praise simply by avoiding embarrassing consequences that their own carelessness made likely to occur. A good example is “Nice catch!” following the timely rescue of an object that, through lack of awareness, was sent falling to the floor. It’s a curious thing, applauding sans sarcasm someone who made a mistake. Whether the…
The phrase “at this time” has the unusual attribute of being ubiquitous in air travel and uncommon everywhere else. It sounds like the soft scolding of an authoritarian repression that hides its merriment at dictating when certain liberties can and cannot be exercised by cloaking itself in an innocent politeness and collectively addressing the passengers…
People can be led to second-guess themselves when information presented to them differs slightly, in conceivable ways, from their expectations or beliefs. It’s straight-forward to state that the likelihood of second-guessing one’s self grows with the region of overlap between what one had held to be true and the new information.* And for anyone doubting…
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