06/02/25
How To Judge A Book By Its Cover
My wife and I are in a speakeasy, hidden behind the door on the first floor of an Anaheim food hall full of hipsters.
We had to make reservations 2 weeks in advance and are looking forward to having the good drinks we've heard so much about.
I give my order. While making my drink, the bartender is regaling the other customers (at an insistent pace) of all the places he's traveled to and all the training he's had.
When my drink comes out, I notice something ...
... it's not very good.
There's no balance. It's like I'm getting a greenish-gray mash instead of a plate of nachos with layered ingredients.
"It's alright," I hear a customer reply to a server who has asked how his drink tastes. The drink that's been made by the same bartender.
She offers a replacement at no extra charge and he readily accepts.
The bartender stops chirping.
...
How do you know when someone can walk her talk?
You look at the appearance, but not the idealized version that is picturesquely presented to us by the media and our imaginations.
To paraphrase Nassim Taleb, a surgeon should look like a butcher and not like other surgeons.
Looks deceive.
At first glance, my 9-month old corgi looks like the calm, quiet type ... until you spend the next ten minutes with him. It reminds me of the adage that the person to fear in a fight is the silent one, not someone who's barking his head off.
You can't always rely on age for information either. For example, young teachers can be better at their jobs than their older counterparts. Perhaps because they haven't been hampered by the comfort that comes along with being tenured or their initial enthusiasm hasn't yet been depleted by the years.
Most of the time, it's what people say that indicates what you should believe.
Like when my piano student mentioned her school teacher called her class, "the most irresponsible group of students I have ever taught in my life."
When a person begins his statement with I am not lying when I tell you this you can safely conclude he is, in fact, lying. This was later confirmed by my student when her friend, in another class he teaches, told her that he started their day with the exact same line.
...