Reality

I have determined that all books, all of the internet, every movie you have watched, every story you have ever heard, all information you have ever come across anywhere is just one of these three narratives:

1. You think X is true, but in fact, X is much more complicated than you realize.
2. You think X is true, and, in fact, you are right, but I will take a while to say that.
3. You think X is true, but in fact, X is much simpler than that.

Those are the DNA base-pairs of anything you have ever written or read.  Yeah, it might be so general as to be completely useless, but it doesn't change how utterly depressing it is to me.

Maybe I am just burned out on science or academia or literature or non-fiction, but all of these fields just seem to be a more nuanced version of the childhood "watch me snapping my fingers on my left hand while I try to smack you on the side of the face with my right hand"game.  In history, you just have to cite all the other finger snappers, in science you need concrete data on the finger snappers, in business you trade on finger snapping sentiment, and in art, the worst offender, you dispense with the finger snapping all together and just alternate slapping the person on each side of the head.

After all this, just stand back and ask the person you have just hit in the face: "Can you see it now?  Interesting, right?"