25 points on the shape of time

1. Time isn’t a law; it’s a human idea.
2. A framework we built to make sense of change.
3. We imagine it as an arrow: straight, forward, irreversible.

4. This perspective took root in Western thought and religion.
5. It gave us beginnings, endings and the story of progress.
6. Linear time feels like a race against a clock you cannot stop.
7. We measure, monetise and obsess over it; hence, time is money.
8. History itself was rewritten as a straight line of cause and effect.
9. Newton treated time as a universal constant, ticking the same everywhere.
10. Indeed, our lives are tied to this line: we plan, hustle, age and keep moving.
11. But many ancient and Eastern cultures saw something far more fluid and recurring.
12. They imagined time as a circle, rather than a line, where repetition was the natural order.
13. They found it in nature’s cycles: sunrises and sunsets, seasons, tides, moons, lifecycles.
14. Death, in this view, was never an ending at all, just a graceful curve in the circle of return.
15. Linear time brings urgency, warning that what goes now is gone forever, never to return.
16. Cyclical time brings comfort, suggesting that what disappears today will one day return.
17. Perhaps time is an illusion that moves us forward but folds itself into recurring patterns.
18. Or maybe time isn’t a line or a circle, but a spiral that returns to old points at higher levels.
19. Austin Kleon calls this the creative life: you loop back, but never quite to the same place again.
20. Physics expands this picture because it doesn’t give us a single story on time, but two different ones.
21. The second law of thermodynamics gives time its arrow because entropy, or disorder, always grows.
22. Which explains why eggs don’t unscramble, stars burn out and events and processes cannot be reversed.
23. Yet most fundamental laws of physics are time-symmetric; forward or backward makes no difference to them.
24. Which means the arrow of time isn’t its real essence at all; it’s merely a by-product of how matter behaves.
25. Time isn’t an arrow, circle or a spiral; it doesn’t flow or move, but provides the stage on which everything unfolds.

36 points on how the pratfall effect makes us human

1. People are naturally drawn to flaws; they find them appealing.
2. Social psychologist Elliot Aronson identified this as the Pratfall Effect.
3. Richard Shotton notes psychologists observe this effect across contexts.
4. Adam Ferrier found that people prefer rough-edged over smooth cookies.
5. NW University found that 4.5-star reviews are more trusted than perfect 5s.
6. Jo Silvester found that job candidates who admit mistakes are more valued.
7. Nicole Mirnig found that people prefer imperfect robots that make mistakes.
8. Indeed, robots like R2-D2 and C-3PO are beloved for their quirks and goofs.
9. Even flawed figures like politicians and bankers become likeable after service.
10. Philosopher Alain de Botton even suggests a top date question: 'How are you crazy?'
11. Seems like perfection often feels cold/fake/distant, while flaws create connection.
12. Evolution has wired us to trust those who admit flaws, signaling honesty/relatability.
13. Indeed, the pratfall effect has been effectively applied in all forms of advertising.
14. From Stella Artois' 'Reassuringly Expensive' to New Balance's bad-good dad shoes.
15. Categories, like budget airlines, openly admit their trade-offs, gaining credibility.
16. Films and shows reveal mistakes through bloopers, making stories/subjects feel real.
17. We're drawn to flawed characters, giving second chances to those who come up short.
18. Comedians often rely on pratfalls, and have mastered the art better than anyone else.
19. In fact, the term pratfall comes from physical comedy, meaning 'fall on the bottom.'
20. The Charlie Chaplins, Buster Keatons and Jackie Chans have aced physical pratfalls.
21. And the likes of Ricky Gervais, Louis C.K. and Bill Burr have aced verbal pratfalls.
22. Indeed, one of the great staples of the romantic comedy is the pratfall—often literally.
23. The thing is, a blunder from a superior person removes the pressure to appear flawless.
24. Which explains the slips of tongue and red carpet trippings of the Jennifer Lawrences.
25. But the pratfall effect comes with risks and is best applied with certain considerations.
26. It should be treated as a fedora; ok as an occasional accessory, not as a signature move.
27. The effect works for those perceived as competent but backfires for those seen as mediocre.
28. So it's ok for Elon Musk's Cybertruck to crack, but not for Joe Biden to misname Zelensky Putin.
29. It's ok when you own up a mess; like KFC apologising with 'FCK' after having run out of chicken.
30. Or for inherent flaws; like Buckley’s cough: ‘Our largest bottle is 200ml. Any more would be cruel.’
31. The pratfall effect isn't just an evolutionary instinct, it's a philosophy observed across cultures.
32. The Japanese even have a word for it—Wabi-Sabi; the art of finding perfection in the imperfect.
33. Or indeed, Aristotle's 'golden mean' suggests that likability balances competence with dignified flaws.
34. Even Nietzsche's Übermensch—flawless superiority—signifies the perfected projection of imperfections.
36. Ultimately, the pratfall effect reminds us that our humanity lies in our imperfections, not our perfections.

28 points on why evolution favours illogical choices

1. Evolution often defies survival logic.
2. Peacocks grow massive tails that hinder escape.
3. Elks develop antlers so large they can barely move.
4. Bullfrogs croak excessively, wasting precious energy.
5. Exaggerated traits persist because they signal desirability.
6. So, such traits, along with the preference for them, are passed on.
7. The biologist Ronald Fisher called this process 'Fisherian Runaway.'
8. It allows traits that set individuals apart as desirable to dominate over time.
9. Fisherian Runaway explains arms races in status, taste, fashion and even survival.
10. The value of these traits isn't inherent—it lies in how well they signal competence.
11. From exaggerated physical traits (peacock's tail) to behavioural displays (bullfrog's croak).
12. From genetic correlations (finches' beak colour) to mate choice (human facial symmetry).
13. From multiple ornaments (elk's antlers and calls) to indicator traits (birds' bright plumage).
14. Rory Sutherland recognises that many of our choices are Fisherian Runaway in disguise.
15. The choice to attend college is often less about learning and more about signalling status.
16. The choice to inflate startup valuations puts joining the 'unicorn' club over sustainability.
17. The choice to chase virtue-signalling campaigns puts awards over effectiveness in adland.
18. The choice to curate social media lives, filters and follower counts mirrors a peacock's tail.
19. Sutherland describes the 'sourdough effect' as another form of cultural Fisherian Runaway.
20. This typically occurs when one trend overshadows all others, dominating the ecosystem.
21. Sourdough bread, for instance, symbolises fine quality and thrives on its own popularity.
22. Options like rye fade—not because they're inferior, but because they're less fashionable.
23. Once a trait signals desirability, it often spirals into excess and becomes self-reinforcing.
24. The paradox is that exaggerated traits often reduce efficiency and long-term survival.
25. Evolution is not about survival of the fittest, strongest, smartest, sensible or the practical.
26. Instead, it favours traits that make the loudest, flashiest or most extravagant impression.
27. That is, the real reasons behind choices often seem counterproductive yet remain compelling.
28. Or as J.P. Morgan put it, everyone has two reasons for their actions: a good reason and the real reason.

29 points on why reality TV is like the air we breathe

1. Reality TV isn’t just a blend of emotion + pranks; it’s life turned into ‘Truth or Dare.’
2. The genre's been around since Queen for a Day (1940s), which put suffering on a stage.
3. Followed by Candid Camera (50s), which put unsuspecting folk in awkward scenarios.
4. Then, An American Family (70s) turned everyday life into a soap opera minus a script.
5. The Gong Show (70s) turned talent into a circus, where the absurd overpowered skill.
6. COPS (80s) brought real-life danger into living rooms with cameras capturing action.
7. Funniest Home Videos (80s) turned viewers into storytellers with hilarious home clips.
8. MTV’s The Real World (90s) made conflict a show by filming strangers living together.
9. Big Brother + Survivor made survival a gladiatorial sport, taking the genre mainstream.
10. American Idol (00s) turned talent shows into intense dramas with spotlight and voting.
11. Reality TV isn’t just popular; it’s a cultural undercurrent that thrives on breaking taboos.
12. Its survival hinges on one truth: people love watching others break the rules they can’t.
13. Despite its appeal, reality TV is seen as tacky, lowbrow entertainment for the masses.
14. Critics argue it exploits, but participants accept the trade-off for their quick shot at fame.
15. Emily Nussbaum likens reality TV to the air we breathe: essential, invisible, everywhere.
16. It feeds our hunger for the raw and the ridiculous, revealing the illusion of unfiltered truth.
17. Mark Greif sees it fulfilling our craving for extreme myths, capturing triumph and downfall.
18. Reality TV thrives on the weird and absurd, turning the mundane into a spectacle of what-ifs.
19. The magic lies in its shallow thrills and sharp reflections; so expecting depth misses the point.
20. Nietzsche’s take on hope prolonging suffering mirrors reality TV’s loop of ambition + failure.
21. It keeps us guessing by blurring the lines between genuine emotion and orchestrated drama.
22. The undying allure of reality TV lies not in it being real, but in playing with what real could be.
23. Nussbaum notes that it strips us to the nerves; that if we’re willing to watch, it’s willing to show.
24. It creates a sort of 'you-can’t-not-talk-about-it’ feeling, turning fleeting absurdities into folklore.
25. It holds a cracked mirror to society, revealing both our deepest insecurities and highest hopes.
26. Reality TV isn’t about literal truth but rendering the emotional highs and lows of being human.
27. The genre defies snobbery by letting audiences enjoy entertainment without the need for high art.
28. It cuts through elitism, blending the crass and the captivating into something uniquely democratic.
29. Its best moments are unscripted, beyond most writers, revealing reality in a way only this genre can.

26 points on why all desire is mimetic

1. Desires are different from needs and animal instincts.
2. Needs are real and natural; desires are mimetic and abstract.
3. We want things like cars and earrings, not just sustenance and sex.
4. But we don’t have a mechanism to choose between objects of desire.
5. Instead, we look for and rely on models that show us what’s worth wanting.
6. These models – people, places, things and lifestyles – act as signposts for desires.
7. So desire is an intellectual pursuit; a striving for what we lack, redefined by others.
8. This constant, never-satisfied striving for something we don't have is what we call desire.
9. From philosophy to psychoanalysis, we’re led to imagine that desires come from within us.
10. The post-Enlightenment, truly rational subject is meant to have an authentic mode of being.
11. Critical theories try to free the self from the suppression of tyrants, ideology, the unconscious.
12. But to think desires are our own is what the social theorist René Girard calls ‘the romantic lie’.
13. In fact, he added that all desire is mimetic — that we copy not just behaviour, but desire itself.
14. For instance, when coveting a luxury car, what we're really desiring is the status it represents.
15. We mimic our models' desires and constantly chase new things as new models keep emerging.
16. This endless dissatisfaction is what the sociologist Zygmunt Bauman calls 'liquid modernity'.
17. And as Girard recognised, there's no autonomous being or authentic self, only mimetic desire.
18. So the irony of desire: in striving to be unique, we find ourselves copying the wants of others.
19. It’s useful to note that mimesis exists on a spectrum; some desires are less mimetic than others.
20. Less mimetic desires, like a mother's love, have deeper roots and fewer variables over time.
21. Then there are entirely mimetic desires, like buying a stock because everyone else wants it.
22. Our abstract desires are either thick, enduring, values-based or thin, fleeting and superficial.
23. While thick desires, like personal growth, offer lasting fulfilment; thin ones, like fads, don't.
24. Girard’s revelation means freedom isn’t found in the individual, but in one’s choice of models.
25. That is, we can’t author our own desires, but we can curate them through intentional imitation.
26. Therefore, the greatest freedom lies not in escaping the mirror of desire, but in choosing its reflection.

23 points on why boring contains the interesting

1. A study by the University of Essex has revealed the world’s most boring people.

2. It includes accountants, church-goers, birdwatchers, insurance folk, data analysts etc.
3. And a whole lot of basic people, from TV addicts to those who live in mid-sized towns.
4. Problem is, such stereotypes define boring in perceived, objective levels of excitement.
5. They fail to notice the nuances and complexities of individual experiences/preferences.
6. Boring is a subjective experience; like what’s boring to one person may interest another.
7. Kenneth Goldsmith studies boring to the bone, and teaches ‘Uncreative Writing’ at Penn.
8. He claims to be the world's most boring writer, producing monumentally boring work.
9. Like retyping the contents of a NY Times edition to transcribing a year’s weather reports. 
10. He suggests that his work is better thought about than read; thinkership > readership.
11. He observed that there are two types of boring: ‘boring boring’ and ‘unboring boring’.
12. Boring boring is a forced state; something to endure, like Duchamp’s urinal Fountain.
13. Or Jackson Low’s anti-war poetry reading that goes on and on until the room is empty. 
14. Unboring boring is a voluntary state; something to surrender to, like John Cage’s 4′33″.
15. Or Warhol’s films: a static image of the Empire State for 8 hrs, a man sleeping for 6 hrs.
16. Boring makes you think, and nothing's boring if you justify it being there conceptually.
17. The writer Liz Gilbert goes so far as saying everything that is interesting is 90% boring. 
18. Or as Cage puts, if something’s boring for 2 mins, try it for 4, 8, 16, 32.. until it won’t.
19. Point is, activities can be interesting not despite their tedious nature, but because of it.
20. Indeed, G.K. Chesterton noted that there are no boring things, only disinterested minds.
21. Thinking about boring this way might mean one won’t be bored in the same way again.
22. G.B. Shaw realised that the harder and more thoroughly one is used up, the more they live.
23. It could well mean that the harder and more thoroughly one is bored up, the more they live.

23 points on the definitive new status signal

1. Conspicuous consumption is a way of signalling wealth to reveal or gain one’s status.
2. The term is the subject of Thorstein Veblen’s 1899 hit, The Theory of the Leisure Class.
3. It suggested that outward signifiers, like clothes, were an obvious tool to signal wealth.
4. Like you could literally tell who the rich people were, simply by seeing what they wore.
5. Fashion, born off it, became a language to show allegiance to social groups distinctively.
6. Today, you can’t reliably tell who’s rich anymore because the rich dress like the rest of us.
7. As writer Kate Wagner puts, Zuckerberg looks like your dad’s friend, Gates like grandad.
8. While actors, actresses and celebrities are snapped in Nike sweatpants and Starbucks cups.
9. Wagner notes that clothes have always been a clear class signifier, respecting stereotypes.
10. The rich relied on signals like tailored suits, dresses, beautiful shoes, curated jewellery etc.
11. They no longer embrace formality, eliminating the significance of such aesthetic signifiers.
12. Costumer Colleen Morris-Glennon notes that the richer someone is, the more they blend in.
13. But at least two movements in fashion reveal such discreet forms of understated signalling.
14. Quiet luxury: intentionally going for high-craft, high-quality clothes that deflect attention.
15. Like Gwyneth Paltrow's courtcore, Succession fashion, Cate Blanchett’s wardrobe in Tár etc.
16. Stealth wealth: avoiding ostentatious displays with basics that imply living within means. 
17. Like Zuckerberg’s plain tees, Jobs’ normcore mom jeans, Fetterman’s hoodies + shorts etc. 
18. Point is, rich people don’t dress like the rich people we think rich people should dress like.
19. They are not wearing Balenciaga hoodies over Supreme tees or Gucci-printed sweatpants.
20. Writer Sheluyang Peng notes that ostentatious clothing displays scream tacky, or worse, poor.
21. Peng adds that with clothing no longer a reliable signal of wealth, virtue signalling steps in. 
22. For those with fewer resources can’t afford the flexibility to participate in such costly signalling.
23. But, as the law Prof. James Allan puts, the rich can afford to virtue signal at least more than us. 

25 points on why happiness lies in the process

1. The evolutionary purpose of life is to survive and reproduce.
2. But unlike other animals, humans have this capacity to reason.
3. So Aristotle observed that the ultimate purpose of life is happiness.
4. He defined it as eudaemonia, meaning, ‘flourishing’ or ‘living well.'
5. A perspective that realises human potential by intellectual fulfillment.
6. This Aristotelian view has defined the nature of western thought since.
7. But happiness is subjective, so there’s no consensus on how it's realised. 
8. So several theories on happiness have emerged, which fall in three types.
9. Needs satisfaction, process of activity, and personality disposition theories.
10. Needs theories suggest that reducing pains and tensions lead to happiness.
11. For instance, Freud’s pleasure principle and Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.
12. Process of activity theories posit that happiness comes from being engaged.
13. For instance, Csikszentmihalyi’s flow and Kahneman’s dual-process theories.
14. Personality disposition theories suggest that happiness is inherent and genetic.
15. For instance, Fiske’s Big 5 and Brickman-Campbell’s hedonic treadmill theories.
16. Perhaps the most practical of all theories: Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's flow theory.
17. It's born from studying those who did activities for pleasure, even without rewards.
18. He discovered that happiness was the product of intense activities, not relaxation.
19. So happiness lied in the process—being in a state of flow, of complete absorption.
19. A state in which one is so immersed in the joy of doing something for its own sake.
20. A pattern he noticed in painters, musicians, athletes, dancers, scientists, surgeons etc.
21. If challenge exceeds skill, anxiety strikes, if skill exceeds challenge, boredom strikes.
22. So the flow state sits between boredom (activity is too easy) and anxiety (it's too hard).
23. Life’s worth living when one finds flow doing something so absorbing, nothing matters.
24. Like writing, playing an instrument, creating art, a meal, solving a problem, learning etc.
25. The happiest people spend much of their time in a state of flow; it's the happiness factory.

21 points on the strangeness of queues

1. From ancient Egypt to Rome, queues have been used to organise crowds/distribute resources.
2. The word queue comes from the French word cue, meaning ‘tail’, to describe a line of people.
3. Queue sounds strange because it’s a 5-letter word pronounced the same with 4 letters silent.
4. Queue seems strange because it means both a noun (a line) and a verb (to join or form a line).
5. Queues are worth studying for they reveal our strange ties to illogic, time, perception, norms.
6. The dictionary defines the queue as a line of people, usually standing, waiting for something.
7. MIT’s Richard Larson defines it as that which happens when real-time demand exceeds supply.
8. Seems like the dominant reason for people to queue is fairness, which is instinctive/intuitive.
9. The psychologist Stanley Milgram finds queue-jumpers being confronted only 10% of the time.
10. Which suggests that we prefer to absorb solitary rule breakers for the greater good of order.
11. Strangely, as the psychologist Adrian Furnham notes, our queueing habits run on a ‘Rule of 6.’
12. As in, we tend to give up in 6 mins, resist lines longer than 6, feel anxious within 6” gaps etc.
13. The Harvard professor David Maister points to at least 3 areas in queueing worth tinkering.
14. Unoccupied time feels longer than occupied time; so having us do something bends time.
15. Uncertain wait feels longer; so having us feel the progress or service dents the wait time.
16. And if people are made to perceive something as valuable or desirable, they’ll wait longer.
17. Indeed, Disney, the biggest researcher on queues, found that perceived wait > actual wait.
18. For people may forget the time spent waiting, but remember the way they felt during the wait.
19. Queues are strange because they balance fairness and efficiency, yet result in irrational actions.
20. Queues are strange because they're illogical, yet compel us to willingly subject to waiting/delay.
21. It's their strangeness that reveals ours, or as Descartes may have put, ‘We queue, therefore we are.’

17 points on how to appreciate poetry

1. Poetry feels terrifying because we feel stupid if we don't get it.
2. This wasn’t always so, for most of history, poetry was enjoyed by the masses.
3. With science/reason asserting itself in the 19th century, poets glorified poetry's meaning.
4. It became abstract, academic, pretentious, rejecting rhyme, harmony, form, meter and more.
5. By putting cleverness and detachment over joy and beauty, its ability to connect diminished.
6. To complement, poetry was being too well-taught, as difficult texts to be analysed, not enjoyed.
7. Such that we were required to spend more time understanding poetry, rather than appreciate it.
8. The poet Archibald MacLeish suggests that poetry should not mean, but be; felt, not fathomed.
9. Or as the writer Verlyn Klinkeborg suggests, meaning need not be the sole purpose of poetry.
10. That the purpose of each line in a poem can be the line itself, and pleasure derived for what it is.
11. Which is how children enjoy poetry, reading each line repetitively, and with incredible exactitude.
12. Each line in the poem itself has rhythm; it uses alliteration, hyperbole, metaphor, simile and so on.
13. Klinkenborg notes that children demand the line itself, whose meaning isn't a substitute for the line.
14. Reading poetry this way helps one pause, take notice, rather than obsess only on extracting meaning.
15. Henry David Thoreau observed that each of us are primed to receive only what we're ready to receive.
16. And to truly receive, or see anew, a special type of receptivity, unblinded by preconceptions, is needed.
17. Poetry provides that; it opens us up like no other form of writing, and lets us see more than we can see. 

17 points on how comics make time happen

1. It seems like time flows; that it has a direction: it moves forward.

2. This is the way people seem to experience time, as a linear sequence.
3. But there's no evidence in physics to support the intuitive idea that time flows.
4. Rather, time does not flow, it exists all at once; perception just limits our view of it.
5. None of us have multiple vantage points to see all space, at every moment in time.
6. So time is an eternal present that can't be translated to a linear, sequential narrative.
7. Meanwhile, comics can communicate multiple vantage points in near-simultaneity.
8. Say, one panel, unlike a photo, can convey some 30 sec interval of time, all at once.
9. Comics allow readers to move back and forth in time and space, to draw the whole.
10. This phenomenon, of observing the parts but perceiving the whole, is called closure.
11. Using imagination to fill gaps underpins cartoonist Scott McCloud's theory of closure.
12. Comics readers fill in the gaps to make sense between two seemingly unrelated panels.
13. They're able to jump from panel to panel with guesses/bridges to stitch a coherent story.
14. Each piece in a comic is just a piece, it can't be understood without connecting the dots.
15. Using closure to bridge time, space and motion, comics deliver a truly satisfying narrative.
16. Being discontinuous, coherent yet total simultaneously makes comics the art form unlike any.
17. It lets us experience time as it exists, all at once, rather than being a linear sequence that flows.

19 points on why liking is simply a matter of choosing

1. Professor Brian Wansink of Cornell estimates that we make two hundred food decisions a day.
2. So the question of what we like to eat confronts us more so than what we like to wear, read etc.
3. The what we like to eat conundrum presents two options: try something new or pick a favourite.
4. Which, as the psychologist Paul Rozen observes, depends on where we want pleasure to occur.
5. As in it would depend on whether we want our pleasure to occur before, during or after the meal.
6. Anticipated pleasure is greater if we pick a favourite; for we've already had it at some point before.
7. Remembering pleasure is greater if we try something new; for it creates new memories and favourites.
8. So liking circles around anticipation and memory; what we look forward becomes what we've had before.
9. Hence, the past and future feed thoughts, reflecting Blaise Pascal's maxim: 'The present is never our end.'
10. The present, expressed as living in the moment, is ambiguous for we're unsure how long makes a moment
11. But neither anticipation or memory is a reliable solution to answer how much we will like, or liked something.
12. For instance, eating a favourite meal every day for a while can alter the worth of how much that meal is liked.
13. Or the meals we ate during childhood may no longer be as desirable to the evolved palates of our old age.
14. Or a meal we didn't like at the time of having it may be liked later as we distort our perception when recalled.
15. Which suggests, as observed by the writer Tom Vanderbilt, that the key to liking may be the fact that it's chosen.
16. Which builds on the behavioural bias of cognitive dissonance: our tendency to avoid post-decision choice malaise.
17. So much that we increase our liking for what we've chosen, while increasing our dislike for what we've not chosen.
18. In other words, as Vanderbilt articulates, as much preferences influence choices, choices influence preferences.
19. Hence, a reliable solution to the conundrum of what we like to eat is simply what we choose to eat; liking follows.

22 points on why all humour theories miss the point

1. Although everyone understands humour, it's hard to explain what it is.
2. Or rather impossible, as observed by actual comedians and comedy writers.
3. Despite which, there have been a number of academic attempts to theorise humour.
4. For that which is inexplicable has tended to attract more enthusiasm than that which can.
5. So for 2000 years, it's been assumed that all forms of humour may have a common ingredient.
6. The search for this ingredient was occupied mainly by philosophers, and psychologists thereafter.
7. Superiority theory, the oldest, by Plato, holds humour as that which comes from the misfortune of others.
8. Relief theory, made famous by Sigmund Freud, holds humour as that which releases tensions and inhibitions.
9. Incongruity theory, by Hegel, Kant, Schopenhauer, holds humour as the result of a sudden shift in perspective.
10. Resolution of incongruity theory, its variant, holds humour as an unexpected solution from a shift in perspective.
11. Benign violations theory, by Thomas Veatch, holds humour as harmless violations of social, moral, physical norms.
12. Play theory, by Max Eastman, holds humour as a kind of pleasure that's drawn from playful presentations of pain.
13. Conflict theory, by Karl Marx, holds humour as that which acts as an expression of conflict, struggle or friction.
14. Ambivalence theory, by Louis Joubert, holds humour as that which is an inside battle between opposing emotions.
15. Dispositional theory, by Dolf Zillmann and Joanne Cantor, holds humour as that which is derived from antipathy.
16. Gesalt theory, by Max Wertheimer, holds humour as that which comes via tweaked meaning that change meaning.
17. Piagetian theory, by Jean Piaget, holds humour as that which derives pleasure from taking things out of place.
18. Configurational theory, by Paul Schiller, holds humour as that which arises from interpretations, not what it is.
19. But most theories are versions of incongruity theory, which is the most plausible account on what makes humour.
20. Since humour perpetuates unresolvable gaps in reason, gaps in theorist resolutions can be framed as deliberate.
21. By this antilogic, as the cartoonist Ben Juers notes, all theories prank the writer/reader, while missing the point.
22. Or as E. B. White puts, 'Analysing humour is like dissecting a frog. Nobody cares and the frog dies in the process.'