The empty expert answer
There are a lot of questions where the non answer is surprisingly correct. Questions like this…
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What is a Gumption Trap, how can I tell when I’m in one, and how do I get out?
A Gumption Trap is an old school name for an even older idea, coined by Robert…
What purpose do humans serve here on Earth?
The idea that the biosphere of Earth is a single organism, whose cells are each of…
How do I know you’re not the one projecting?
Because you’re the one talking about other people’s state of mind. That’s how I know your…
What is JAQing off?
JustAskingQuestions …is a rhetorical device where people cram a pile of lies into a question in…
What’s the dumbest philosophical mistake?
Aristotle, the inventor of logic and science, considered “Petito Principii” to be the stupidest error. This…
What does Uncle Trump’s cabin cruiser look like?
Is the payoff worth it? Will he be the ‘foreclosure’ President? Quick grammar technicality: “Flotsam” is…
Who is the 25%?
25% is a funny number. 25% is the number of people who simply would not go…
What is the best height for a wheel spinning in jelly?
This is actually a really hard problem – it’s a really neat problem for students of…
Would you rather see a foreign art film, or a whore and fart film?
Reversed Clichés are often more insightful than the original. This is a predictable side-effect of living…
What if I’m really the only mind in the universe, and all my “experiences” are really just my imagination creating everyting?
Then mistakes wouldn’t exist. What, you never make mistakes? Super: God himself dropped by my website.…
Which race of humans is fated to eventually win?
Mutts have been studiously and violently destroyed throughout history because they are destined to be the master…
Are there only 700 Prototypes?
Dave and I once got talking about all those doppelgangers a while back. Both of us…
Who lives in The Edifice and The Shack?
The Edifice And The Shack is a metaphor for the contrast between some proposed giant articulate…
What will be the next Kludge That Won?
The Kludge That Won It’s occurred repeatedly in our history. It’s occurred over and over during…
Why don’t you stop trying to colonize Mars and take care of the Earth?
Feminism is, in some regards, the triumph of the ‘cultural’ culture, AKA alpha-male culture. Remarkably, it’s…
Why does John 1:1 undermine approximately the entire Bible?
Spencer said he’s a “Godologist.” I said “Oh, yeah?” To which he replied “Seriously, Dave, I’m…
Who screwed up at the paper factory?
When we go to unwrap an ice cream sandwich, we try to open it longways, to…
Why do new ideas require four exposures?
The first time someone has a new experience, they have no real notion of it, no…
The Truth About Cats, Dogs, Men and Women
Men and dogs… Women and cats… will eat almost anything play with their food like rough…
What happened during Ed’s Alien Abduction?
I never believed those crazy UFO nuts ‘till just a couple weeks ago. I never thought…
Local Cop Tries To Embarrass City, Fails
The following is 100% true. I wish it weren’t Members of the East Lansing Police force…
Bottle Gardeners
Bottle Gardeners “How do you get all the plants in those little bottles?” He was filthy,…
How do you say nothing in as many words as possible?
HOW TO SAY NOTHING IN FIVE HUNDRED WORDS Paul McHenry Roberts (1917-1967) taught college English for…
What color is the bear?
The Bear Hunter This is a mapping puzzle. Drawing a picture, or having a map might…
How do SEP fields really work?
An SEP field is a device for invisibility, and history has an example of a real…
Intuition Development Made Easy
Intuition is the Latinesque name for hunches or gut feelings – unconscious thinking. All people constantly…
What’s the difference between a brain-washing theory and a brain-dirtying theory?
I have a theory that one way to help people (de)program our conditioned responses is to learn…
I’ll be the guy in the mask!
This originally appeared in The State News, Michigan State University’s student newspaper, on June 14, 1999.…
The Most Annoying Question In All Of Human History
There is certainly a grand-champion hall-of-famer MOST annoying question, based on how much turmoil it has…
Find X; the diagonal of a rectangle inscribed in a quarter of a circle
I really like this puzzle because it does such a good job of illustrating the essential…
Principle; the Yin and the Yang
A principle is a relationship, in every case. When two (or more) items interact, the rules…