We don’t just live in our minds. We also don’t just live in a world with other people. We live with the need to have the world in our mind fit with the world of other people, and the shape our life takes is determined by how these two mesh. At one level, this need […]
What I say to a close friend is quite different from what I say to a distant acquaintance or to my boss, even if I’m describing the same situation. When I speak to a friend, I will, of course, relate parts of the story that I keep private from the others. More than that, though, […]
I have a friend who wants to design a “cat ladder,” so her cat can freely travel between her second-floor apartment to the ground. The problem, though, is that the same ladder that lets her cat out will also let other cats in. This, of course, is not something unique to the cat ladder: it […]