Too Wise to Lie, Internal Stories, and Lessons from Improv
Too Wise to Lie, Internal Stories, and Lessons from Improv
Baxter's Blend #5
Hey everyone,
Greetings from Austin!
This past week, I’ve been in a blistering battle with ideas. As I work on my first long-form essay, I’m starting to see that I like writing longer stuff better.
Figuring out how everything comes together is a puzzle. Stories, quotes, drawings, jokes. It’s tricky. I now appreciate what David Perell does a lot more.
But as I’ve seen lately, solving more mysteries like this is something I want to do more of. This was how writing was done before the Internet, anyways.
Too Wise To Lie
Last week, my friend
hosted our first book club for the Odyssey. Homer’s epic poem has 24 books, and we went through the first four.My favorite passage was from Book 3, when Athena tells Telemachus to man up and go talk to King Nestor:
“‘Press him yourself to tell the whole truth:
he’ll never lie—the man is far too wise.’”
Internal Stories
Right now, I’m also reading Aldous Huxley’s 1932 classic, Brave New World.
Wow, Huxley is an amazing writer. Sure, he predicted that the world would value pleasure over truth and beauty. Sure, he has some pretty vibrant imagery, like “lion-coloured dust” and “corpse-coloured rubber.”
But check out his psychological prose:
“The mockery made him feel like an outsider; and feeling an outsider he behaved like one, which increased the prejudice against him and intensified the contempt and hostility aroused by his physical defects. Which in turn increased his sense of being alien and alone.”
Lessons from Improv Class
Last weekend, I went to an improv class.
I wasn’t sure what to expect, but it was one of the most fun things I’ve ever done. While on some level it was just a bunch of people playing make-believe, it was also liberating.
Something I struggle with is being in my head too much. This class solved that problem. I felt present, alive, and engaged. Besides playing soccer or going out to dinner with friends, very few things can transport me into this type of playful state.
One principle that they taught us: be obvious. Instead of thinking of the perfect thing to say, just say what comes to your mind first. Often times, trusting what you spit out is the best and funniest way to do it. I’m the type of person who thinks of six things to say to someone before I say hi, so it was fun to just let it rip.
Something neat I observed was the feeling of feigned confidence. I was telling lies, yes, but with more conviction than when I would tell the truth in real life.
At one point during the class, I was playing the role of a McDonald’s manager doing a job interview. I made up this dress-code policy that didn’t let employees show any skin. Sure, it would get sweaty. But we had these chemistry lab pants that allowed the sweat to pool without getting on the floor.
Gross, yes. But I also surprised myself by pulling this out of my ass. I hadn’t thought about chemistry lab class in college for a while. The part about the sweat was funny but made no sense. I ran with it, though.
So why was I so confident? Because I knew that whatever I said would be accepted. There was no absolute truth. This is a great mental model for the real world: live life as if it were an improv class. Stop taking shit so seriously and assume that the first thing that comes out of your mouth is perfect and valid.
Joke of the Week
As I was driving home from the improv class, an ad caught my attention: “Your wife looks hot. Maybe it’s time to get the AC fixed.”
See you next week,
—Baxter
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