It doesn’t pay to be honest all the time. Telling the truth often is insane. My coworkers spoke highly of a pizza restaurant the other day and I told them I bought a hamburger from them and returned to the office to find it was just a burger, and a bun. That’s what I told them: “I brought it back to the office and opened it up and it was just a burger, and a bun. Nothing else. For six dollars, just a burger, and a bun.”
“You should have asked for toppings,” one woman said.
“It was my fault,” I conceded, because I didn’t want to seem negative or controversial (angry and truthful). “I didn’t tell the woman I wanted anything,” I said. “But I got twelve ketchups, and that helped,” I joked.
“That’s the way to make everybody like you,” I thought afterwards. “Humble yourself, and people accept your honesty.”
Because it wasn’t a regular Italian pizza restaurant, and the woman couldn’t speak English and couldn’t serve properly, or she would’ve asked me if I wanted toppings because to serve just a burger and a bun is unusual. Of course, that happened because our world is falling apart, and is being made to fall apart. But we can’t talk about that because it would take hours, and we would need the strength of more than just a hamburger for a civil conversation about that to be any good. Permanence Science is your proof. I’ve written it for over thirteen years and few care.
So, it’s worth it to humiliate yourself to save from draining conversations with people who don’t, can’t – or, unfortunately, won’t – understand.