25. How to be a Person -- "Predictions"

The Newsletter from BoldActing.com for Sunday, June 23rd 2024

London, May 2024.

One evening C. and I went to a Turkish restaurant in Marylebone. We were following his wife’s criterion of a high rating on google maps equals a good restaurant. This place did not shore-up such a prediction. No matter, there were fries. And anytime there is kabob and fries and garlic sauce and pita my heart skips a beat. And not just from the angina.

There is something the great, dead psychologist Daniel Kahneman called non-regressive prediction: making extreme predictions without any evidence. This is something I do. It’s comforting to know there’s a name for such behaviour. In spite of an overwhelming track record to the contrary I still think I can pick a winner.

• I thought the US would already be in a war with Mexico by now. Like a CIA war. Not a real war that gets covered on the news.

• I thought Justin would have resigned by now but I think he knows something about Poillievre being compromised by the Chinese so that’s why he’s hanging in. He’s hoping for an American-style indictment that would buy Justin a little more time.

• I thought Idris would have been Bond by now.

• And I thought Trump would have had a heart attack. Or at least a touch of tertiary syphilis.

C. is a good man, serious about being a part of the solution. We can get quite serious together. But I did successfully help to guide us into a dick joke that went on for about 20-minutes and left us breathless with laughter in between mouthfuls of shawarma.

A proper belly laugh. Is there anything better?