Your friends are loathe to explain it to you

What if it turns out that your whole life is a joke, and you're not even in on it? Your friends are loath to explain it to you, for obvious reasons, but also because it's just not that funny, and the joke, such as it is, would be spoiled even for them.

It could be that the average person, though he may understand most jokes, is constitutionally incapable of perceiving that joke, the joke on himself. That would explain a lot of things. It even explains the self-deprecation of so many people which, while disarming, still seems insincere or inadequate.

“You keep saying, ‘in my humble opinion’, yet there you are, having an opinion. Why is this?”

Almost every day I catch people not being self-deprecating enough.

Labels: Primer for Self-Study

There is a series of books known as the “Teach Yourelf” books, now almost exclusively intended for the study of foreign languages, but back in the day they covered subjects as diverse as beekeeping and elementary embezzlement. They were published by The English Universities Press, and were identifiable by their dark blue and yellow dust jacket, or paper cover. In quality they varied somewhat, but none, I think, was a complete dud. “This excellent volume fills a gap in the material available,” etc. was the customary review. Who would use them? Anyone disinclined, for one reason or the other, to enroll in a formal course of study. The books were designed to be self-contained and as complete an introduction to the matter as a single volume can be.

But there is probably just as pressing a need for a series called “Teach Yourself Not To”, because there are lots of things people would like to learn not to do. “How Not To Lose at Cards”, for example. “How Not To Be a Jerk”. “How Not To Get Involved.”

Labels: Primer for Self-Study