I’ve become a little shifty. In style, not in action. Being honest and direct by nature, I find it very uncomfortable playing this Shifty-Me role. But I brought this on myself.

I had explained in a very public forum that when I am thinking I need to look into the distance. I unthinkingly quoted research that explained my need for doing so. The human face is mentally demanding, and so, to focus my brain, I look away. To think.

Of course, now that I have made my thinking strategy so public I feel obliged to always look away when interacting with someone. If I don’t, sooner or later someone will complain that I obviously don’t find their face demanding enough.

It was so much easier before science made me shifty. In those days all I had to do was to explain that, no, I wasn’t staring at a pretty girl.

Welcome to the nonsense divide.