Distrust Self-Designation

Many years ago, one of my daughters popped off with a profound observation. We were driving along, when she offered up from the back seat, or possibly the way-way-back seat (Merkle term for third row), the following insight. “If you want to know who are the big kids and who are the little kids, the way you can tell is you say, ‘Hey big kids, come over here.’ And the kids who come over, those are the little kids.”

If you develop an instinctive impulse to disbelieve self-designations, you will find yourself mysteriously ahead of the curve of the general public’s awareness. What I mean is, if someone says, “I am an academic” or “I am an artist” or “I am a musician,” and you immediately think to yourself, “I bet you aren’t,” you will find yourself landing on the truth far more swiftly than the rest of the public.

Of course there are exceptions. But this is a heuristic that will win far more often than it will lose. The reason your writing teacher told you to “show, don’t tell” is because the truth tends to show, rather than tell.