The lampposts of the world

There are some people you love to talk to. There are some you want to talk to. Then there are some you CAN talk to. These people exist everywhere, they are reasonably intelligent, know how to handle a conversation. They can, at the very least, keep up a dialog which doesn't make you want to tear your hair out one at a time. However, this is not about them. This is about the last class of people, those that I call the lampposts of the world. We will come to the question of "why" later.

You must have seen them. Everyone know at least one of these people. They go around, trying to act smart but exuding a kind of absolute idiocy that cannot be ignored. It is like flatulence in an elevator. You WANT to ignore the stench, but you simply cannot. I have some of these guys around, and often I want to murder them. Their existence itself is like a piece of chewing gum stuck on your finger... you try to shake it off, you try to rub it against the wall, you try to use your other fingers to remove it, you thiiiinnnkkkk it is going to go away, but no, it just stays... well if you are as frustrated as I was some time back with these pall bearers of stupidity, I have a way of looking at it.

I call it the lamppost philosophy. Every time I have a problem with these people, I think of them as lampposts. If you go bang your head into a lamppost, it is your fault, not the lamppost's. So what you need to do is simply walk around it... The exact same philosophy has worked wonders for me !!! Now i just look at them, smile knowingly and walk around the lamppost, careful not to stub my toe :-) ...
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