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Morning! Because of the complicated relationship our species has with the truth, being truthful can sometimes (often?) actually get you labelled as untrustworthy. There’s a huge gap between our moral fantasies (as told in our modern myths and folklore) and practical reality


The truth about truth is that people often don’t care if you’re right if they prefer the story where you’re wrong, and they will *ruin* you for it. Seen this happen to my own friends during #metoo - telling the truth can be a *punishable offence* https://t.co/hmyItT7tlL

It’s complicated and fascinating. A person doing their absolute best to be as honest as possible could still be totally wrong because they were basically using the wrong model, connecting the wrong dots, and so on https://t.co/QXSZqcs1OQ

How it's possible to paint a dishonest picture by telling selective truths, and how we all do it because narrative bias and selection bias – and this applies to every person you meet, every book on your shelf, and most of your own internal dialogue https://t.co/4awLroIkbP

I’m constantly fascinated by how many of our coming of age myths (Thor, Black Panther, Moana, Tangled, Wonder Woman...) are basically about children discovering that their adults lied to them to “protect” them https://t.co/K2iyXPGBTF

It's an interesting + highly personal dilemma. Diaspora Indian communities are internally conflicted about this: do you tell your children the truth about how some of them are descended from castes that were considered inferior? Should you burn history books that were racist? 🤔 https://t.co/jJVXxAK26y



A misreading of “honesty is a blunt instrument that bloodies more than it cuts” might be “well I guess I’d better be dishonest then.” No!! That misses the point, which is to be sensitive to others. Delivery matters. Context matters. Nuance matters. Be patient & thoughtful & kind https://t.co/IGkT3I6eJm


https://t.co/yrTpP9cbFJ https://t.co/4wcxtOSD2t

I rewatched The Big Short last night. I know it's dramatized, but it's really sobering to contemplate how people will think you're insane (literally – they'll think you're mentally unsound) for doing what you think is right, based on your rigorous assessment of reality https://t.co/ZHFhCW1kOg


“I wouldn’t know... where to begin” https://t.co/OQmDCa5JXZ https://t.co/IBlt8XVUNr

Something I read that really blew this open for me was @vgr's description of some dialogue on The Office. Reading this a few years ago made me realize how incredibly textured and subtle social reality actually is, and how much I was missing IN PLAIN SIGHT https://t.co/70t7p0bkSj https://t.co/E4mTwPwi2W


“I wouldn’t know... where to begin” https://t.co/OQmDCa5JXZ https://t.co/IBlt8XVUNr

Something I read that really blew this open for me was @vgr's description of some dialogue on The Office. Reading this a few years ago made me realize how incredibly textured and subtle social reality actually is, and how much I was missing IN PLAIN SIGHT https://t.co/70t7p0bkSj https://t.co/E4mTwPwi2W


https://t.co/yrTpP9cbFJ https://t.co/4wcxtOSD2t

I rewatched The Big Short last night. I know it's dramatized, but it's really sobering to contemplate how people will think you're insane (literally – they'll think you're mentally unsound) for doing what you think is right, based on your rigorous assessment of reality https://t.co/ZHFhCW1kOg


“I wouldn’t know... where to begin” https://t.co/OQmDCa5JXZ https://t.co/IBlt8XVUNr

Something I read that really blew this open for me was @vgr's description of some dialogue on The Office. Reading this a few years ago made me realize how incredibly textured and subtle social reality actually is, and how much I was missing IN PLAIN SIGHT https://t.co/70t7p0bkSj https://t.co/E4mTwPwi2W


“I wouldn’t know... where to begin” https://t.co/OQmDCa5JXZ https://t.co/IBlt8XVUNr

Something I read that really blew this open for me was @vgr's description of some dialogue on The Office. Reading this a few years ago made me realize how incredibly textured and subtle social reality actually is, and how much I was missing IN PLAIN SIGHT https://t.co/70t7p0bkSj https://t.co/E4mTwPwi2W
