There’s a weird kind of phenomenon that happens when people use easy-to-fake symbols to try to deceive each other: the symbols become cyclic in their meaning. They flip to mean the opposite of what they once meant, and then they flip back again. Continue reading
This post presents a model for understanding the different ways that people can relate to symbols and their substance. Back in Part 2, I mentioned that, apart from surrogating on symbols, we can use them as symbols, for the indirect benefits we’ll receive from our audience—this post speaks more to that idea. Continue reading
Or, Why you’re not actually bad at remembering people’s names. For a long time I’ve been in the habit of avoiding using certain statements to describe myself, even if they’d have expressed something that I really felt at the time. … Continue reading
In the last post, I concluded that the question “Why ___?” is the request for a reason for something to be the case, and that the answers to this question either state a cause or state the desired effect of the … Continue reading
In the past I’ve written down a few thoughts on the terms “why” and “why not” as they’re used in regular conversation. When I really examined these terms, I arrived at what I thought were some good insights which I’ve decided to present them in a 2-part series here. In … Continue reading
