Recently in sayings suck! Category

you stay in your car at a red light so you'll be ready to go when it turns green.

you don't use an umbrella inside a building because you think the roof will keep you dry.

you don't call all your friends and family every minute to see if they're still alive.

you don't go take a crash course in (insert language you don't know here) because you believe you'll be able to speak the language you know to, say, buy food tomorrow.

what really happens?  you get through your day, that's what.

you - we - make hundreds, thousands of assumptions unconsciously all day long (the pile above on the left). I would argue that we actually consciously think about a lot fewer things before proceeding (the few dots on the right).

but oh, just once, go ahead and assume when you should've checked something out and everyone's all over you for it!

just show them this chart and assume they'll get it.

once upon a time I had a manager who I was very much not aligned with. she was fond of saying "whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger" to which one day I finally almost yelled:

that's when I knew I needed to get far away from this manager, which, I guess is an ironic and circuitous way of getting stronger by getting the hail away from the politically inclined in what should have been a more scientific and engineering straight-up environment.

a friend has reported that he hears "absence makes the heart grow fonder" and he always thinks, "yeah, fonder of absence."

that's worthy of adding to my little crusade.

how do you hear it?

don't you just hate it when someone uses a pithy sing-songy saying to add credence to whatever they just said?  as if that makes it unargumentable?

well, I'm starting a little mini crusade (as opposed to a little large one) against pithy sayings because no matter what point you want to make, there's a pithy saying waiting just for you.

there must be a table of opposites of these, yes? I've never found it and I've been thinking about this for years.

for example:

absence makes the heart grow fonder

vs

out of sight, out of mind

if you know where anyone has drawn up a neat table of these opposites, please do tell!