Rules Question

When someone is overly curious about the exact rules of a situation, asking many questions before engaging, they tend to fall into one of two camps:

1. People who are very interested in following the rules because they don’t have a lot of confidence in their ability to infer the correct behavior in ambiguous situations, and
2. People who intend to do very weird things and want to know what they can get away with.

In other words, when someone asks a lot of questions about all the laws of a town before setting foot there, they’re typically either a socially-inept but obedient person, or they’re a lawyer.

Cleverness often requires structure. Left to pure imagination, some people can go absolutely wild. But the joy of a clever solution is in making a clever solution that works within the confines of the restrictions set by the opponent. Making a highly-unexpected but legal move in chess is a satisfying way to outsmart your opponent. Playing an Uno Reverse Card when they take your queen isn’t.

The responsibility of people who like to play smart is that they have to know the rules better than anyone else. You can’t just be a clever and persuasive person to be a good lawyer, you also have to know the law better than anyone else in the room. Remember that, clever kids, and study up.