Yeah, well, I challenge pretty much anyone when they make a pronouncement or order and the math simply doesn't add up. I found out, and was surprised to learn, very early in life that almost nobody understands elementary math, or for that matter, basic logic. The adults who claimed absolute knowledge of everything (as I suppose you have to do with kids) were basing their tenets, even their most sacred ones, on false premises and terrible conclusions. Mankind is...dumb.

 

So the resultant conundrum is, do you speak out or not, and if you decide to, how do you do it? I learned early on that simply pointing out people's mistakes would backfire; they would react with automatic hostility. I learned to couch my corrections in jokes or speak to them with great deference and humility. I gradually came to just let people drive their metaphorical cars into trees rather than say anything. That decision came about when I was in fourth grade and Mrs. Cady (the best teacher on the planet IMHO) introduced me to the ancient Greek texts and stories: Aristotle, Plato, and later, Homer. There were several constant themes, and one I remember vividly is that a person who speaks an uncomfortable truth is always made to suffer for it.

 

My dad was an exception to this. In return, he was equally hard on me when I made an assumption that was untrue. We were pilot and copilot on the family plane, and I navigated and monitored the gauges. I also helped him install cable TV in apartment buildings and learned to read blueprints and schematics. He said that any important decision he made should be doublechecked by me, and vice versa. We avoided a LOT of screwups that way.