<story><title>Too Clever by Half</title><url>http://epsilontheory.com/too-clever-by-half/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>vpontis</author><text>I really enjoyed this article.&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;Summary&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;Coyotes are too clever because they know that people shaking jars full of coins can’t hurt them. Thus the animal control patrol has to get called and when they don’t shoo, the animal control person who loves animals has to shoot the coyote.&lt;p&gt;Coyotes are winning the mini-game of each human interaction, but they are losing the meta-game of what society will do if coyotes aren’t scared.&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;Personal Connection&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;This reminds me of a turning point that I had in high school. When I was young, I would get in trouble and try to get around the rules each time I got in trouble. &amp;#x2F;“Well, technically…”&amp;#x2F;&lt;p&gt;But at some point I realized that most of the time you aren’t getting in trouble because you are breaking the rules. You are getting in trouble because you are making the rule makers unhappy. Once I had that realization I was able to focus on relationships with the rule makers and figure out what they actually cared about. This allowed me to break the rules just as much but without getting in trouble.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>leetcrew</author><text>&amp;gt; But at some point I realized that most of the time you aren’t getting in trouble because you are breaking the rules. You are getting in trouble because you are making the rule makers unhappy.&lt;p&gt;i had a similar realization in late high-school &amp;#x2F; early college, but worded a little differently. the rules themselves were never designed to be reasonable; they were designed to solve problems that the rule makers encountered in the past and afford them a &amp;quot;legitimate&amp;quot; means of recourse. no one ever intended to apply them consistently. this is why you can generally break as many rules as you want, so long as you don&amp;#x27;t actually cause a problem for someone. on the flip side, if you create a problem, they damn sure have an applicable rule on the books.</text></comment>
<story><title>Too Clever by Half</title><url>http://epsilontheory.com/too-clever-by-half/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>vpontis</author><text>I really enjoyed this article.&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;Summary&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;Coyotes are too clever because they know that people shaking jars full of coins can’t hurt them. Thus the animal control patrol has to get called and when they don’t shoo, the animal control person who loves animals has to shoot the coyote.&lt;p&gt;Coyotes are winning the mini-game of each human interaction, but they are losing the meta-game of what society will do if coyotes aren’t scared.&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;Personal Connection&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;This reminds me of a turning point that I had in high school. When I was young, I would get in trouble and try to get around the rules each time I got in trouble. &amp;#x2F;“Well, technically…”&amp;#x2F;&lt;p&gt;But at some point I realized that most of the time you aren’t getting in trouble because you are breaking the rules. You are getting in trouble because you are making the rule makers unhappy. Once I had that realization I was able to focus on relationships with the rule makers and figure out what they actually cared about. This allowed me to break the rules just as much but without getting in trouble.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>jacobolus</author><text>The problem is that the rule makers in high schools are sometimes (often?) incredibly petty people with a very poor understanding of human psychology and communication, not tremendously much empathy for the students, and very little personal consequence when they make a mistake even if that has drastic consequences for the student (and as a result little time spent introspecting about their mistakes). I never got in particularly much trouble, but many of my friends were screwed by minor miscommunication which incompetent adults escalated beyond any reason.&lt;p&gt;And yes, under the circumstances (assuming the goal is to avoid problems, instead of to aggravate the staff, perform ad-hoc psychology experiments, or the like), any high school student should avoid contradicting the staff in public, start by acquiescing to any request that doesn’t pose an immediate injury risk, disengage quickly and completely and then marshal their parents’ help if there has been any kind of mistake that will affect them academically.&lt;p&gt;Few teenagers have figured this out though. To any high school rule makers out there, please read &lt;i&gt;How to Talk So Kids Will Listen &amp;amp; Listen So Kids Will Talk&lt;/i&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;amzn.com&amp;#x2F;1451663889&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;amzn.com&amp;#x2F;1451663889&amp;#x2F;&lt;/a&gt; and in general, please try to treat the students with basic respect.</text></comment>