Post #4350139
2026-08-03 08:30 UTC
The greatest magic trick of them all is *lying*. The reason you can't figure out that coin vanish even after the conjurer performs it three times in a row is that they *didn't* do the same trick three times in a row!
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If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:
https://pluralistic.net/2026/08/03/andor/#either
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Replies (1)
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@pluralistic@mamot.fr 2026-08-03 08:31
They did three *different* tricks: "Didn't catch it? Here, let me do it again!" is a lie: https://magiciansmag.com/3-cool-coin-disappearing-trick/ There's times when it makes sense to treat two outcomes as the same, even if they were produced by very different means. As a reader, my enjoyment of your novel is the same whether it was dictated, typed on an Underwood Noiseless, keyed into a word processor, or scratched out with a fountain pen: https://nealstephenson.substack.com/p/writing-by-hand-is-good-for-your 2/