{"id":1993,"date":"2016-10-05T18:26:52","date_gmt":"2016-10-06T01:26:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/zackmdavis.net\/blog\/?p=1993"},"modified":"2016-10-05T18:26:52","modified_gmt":"2016-10-06T01:26:52","slug":"the-parable-of-the-honest-man-and-the-thing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/zackmdavis.net\/blog\/2016\/10\/the-parable-of-the-honest-man-and-the-thing\/","title":{"rendered":"The Parable of the Honest Man and the Thing"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&quot;I really want to do the thing! All of my friends who are <em>just like me<\/em> are doing the thing, and they look like they're having <em>so much fun<\/em>!&quot;<\/p>\n<p>&quot;You can totally do the thing! You just have to sign ... this loyalty oath!&quot;<\/p>\n<p><em>(reading it)<\/em> &quot;What? I can't sign this. It's, it's\u2014&quot; <em>(rising horror)<\/em> &quot;<em>not scientifically accurate!<\/em>&quot;<\/p>\n<p>&quot;Everyone else who is doing the thing has signed the loyalty oath.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>&quot;Could I ... do the thing, <em>without<\/em> signing the loyalty oath?&quot;<\/p>\n<p>&quot;You <em>could<\/em>, but everyone you ever interact with for the rest of your life will assume that you've signed the loyalty oath; it would take five hours for you to explain what you actually believe, but no one will listen to you for that long because they'll decide that you're a hateful lunatic thirty seconds in.&quot;<\/p>\n<p><em>(A beat.)<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&quot;You know, honestly, my life is fine as it is. I don't need to do the thing. I'm glad my friends are having fun.&quot;<\/p>\n<p><em>(<a href=\"http:\/\/zackmdavis.net\/blog\/2016\/05\/more-running\/\">dies of cardiac disease fifty years later<\/a> without having done the thing)<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>(Earth is consumed in a self-replicating nanotechnology accident)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&quot;I really want to do the thing! All of my friends who are just like me are doing the thing, and they look like they're having so much fun!&quot; &quot;You can totally do the thing! You just have to sign &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/zackmdavis.net\/blog\/2016\/10\/the-parable-of-the-honest-man-and-the-thing\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/zackmdavis.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1993"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/zackmdavis.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/zackmdavis.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zackmdavis.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zackmdavis.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1993"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/zackmdavis.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1993\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1995,"href":"http:\/\/zackmdavis.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1993\/revisions\/1995"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/zackmdavis.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zackmdavis.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zackmdavis.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}