Stephen Dubner

I had people cheat off of me, but I was also very shy as a kid.

So if I weren't shy, I would have said, what are you talking about?

Or I would have said to my mother when I got home, like this is going on with Mrs. So-and-so, but I did none of that because I was very shy and obedient and willing to take a beating as a kid.

I mean,

I don't like that at all.

And then she made me take the retest and I got a 98, one better, which didn't surprise me because I had seen the test before.

And you know what she did after?

Nothing.

Because she was now embarrassed.

Nothing.

Then I was so pissed because it felt like an injustice.

So I feel like now...

The world is full of people who have some version of that feeling.

Something is being done to them, taken from them, said about them, or done to, taken from, said about people that they know and love.

It's a strange mix of reactions.

I am in the give a stranger a hug mode.

Any more of that type of emotion, argument, anger, frustration, all of which are legitimate,

Contempt.

I want to get rid of the contempt.

Do you know Arthur Brooks?