Friday, October 01, 2004

Stating the Obvious

When my younger son Henry was still learning how to dress himself he'd often put his right shoe on his left foot and his left shoe on his right foot. One day i pointed it out to him so that he could correct it.

"Henry", I said, "your shoes are on the wrong feet".

He looked down at this shoes and replied, "No, these are my feet".

I thought this was funny. I also think it's evidence that you can state something fairly obvious and still be funny and insightful. That's my modest goal for this blog, which is why i've borrowed most of Henry's answer for my title.

I claim that i'll be stating the obvious because, demographically speaking, i'm about as ordinary as one can be. Married, two kids, middle class, middle-aged, etc. I work in the software industry (i know, i know, this is a real rarity among bloggers). In principle, i have little beyond the obvious from which to draw. This (intentionally) defines the obvious to be subjective; i expect my observations to be obvious because they are the observations of someone whose experiences are among the most common. But as Sherlock Holmes would say, "There's nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact".

So, i'll state the obvious and, if you wish, you can point out to me when i've got it backwards. To the extent that blogging is anything beyond quick-fix vanity press, i think that's about the best one can hope for.








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