Unfathomable, odd
People are strange. People do weird things, things that are hard to fathom. Why do people have such a different way of thinking?
Jane owed me £30. (I lent her some money a few weeks back). In the meantime for reasons obscure, I asked her if she would sell a Fireball on her trading account for me. She obliged and shortly after it sold, she says to me, "it was twenty pounds for the Fireball and I owed you thirty, so now I have to give you ten?"
"You what?"
You could see cogs turning in her head. "Thirty minus twenty is ten".
"No, it is thirty plus twenty, fifty".
Jane is someone that points out a dark grey cloud in the distance to counter what is clearly a gorgeous day. Jane rarely thinks something is good but rather, not not-good. Double negatives rather than a simple positive disposition. Hence the taking money off what is owed rather than adding to it.
Maybe we were born weird and wired differently to others. Maybe things in our formative years configure how we see things. What we can say for sure is that others may never see things the way you do. Our capacity to reason differs in the same way as our capacity to run at speed differs.
Thinking in different ways can help some solve cryptic crossword clues quickly. Thinking differently helps some be the best at chess. Thinking differently enables some to prove their worth when sorting out the mess that is so often found in our society.
Some have what you might call a knowledge deficit. A surprising lack of knowledge in certain areas. This lack of knowledge explains a lot. It dictates what opinions are formed. When it comes to non-contentious topics, I learnt to be patient rather than patronising. Explaining things without condescension. Others know thing things that I don’t. So, making yourself appear smarter than others for show, it is not a good look.
One can explain things in a different way to help others understand. One can accept that opinion is formed by the way someone perceives things. To change an opinion, we must get to the root of how and why someone sees things so differently. We see how information gets turned, twisted and manipulated by processes in their head.
We may press our points in vain, never changing someone’s opinion. Forcing an opinion hardens their stance. Socrates probed with questions rather than pushed his truth. He established what the person thought first. Then reframed it.
Why do some act they way they do? Oddly, unconventionally, differently. Truth is, we all act a little unconventionally at times. What is weird to you may feel normal and rational to others. You can’t change what food you find unpleasant. What you like and prefer is fixed to some degree. Likewise, the way your mind receives and perceives things may be quite fixed too.
People are always going to be somewhat unfathomable. Hence the expression;
‘There is nowt as queer as folk’.
Now and forever. Thankfully. And some really weird people will take umbrage at one of the words in that saying. Very strange indeed.
11th July 2026 © IgnoranceParadox
