Preface

 

The extensive revision by Charlie in 2005, made from memory unassisted by any

research, occurred because Charlie thought he could do better at age eighty-one

than he did more than ten years earlier when he (1) knew less and was more

harried by a crowded life and (2) was speaking from rough notes instead of

revising transcripts.

 

***

 

When I read transcripts of my psychology talks given about fifteen years ago, I

realized that I could now create a more logical but much longer “talk,”

including most of what I had earlier said.

 

But I immediately saw four big disadvantages.

 

First, the longer “talk,” because it was written out with more logical

completeness, would be more boring and confusing to many people than any earlier

talk. This would happen because I would use idiosyncratic definitions of

psychological tendencies in a manner reminiscent of both psychology textbooks

and Euclid. And who reads textbooks for fun or revisits Euclid?

 

Second, because my formal psychological knowledge came only from skimming three

psychology textbooks about fifteen years ago, I know virtually nothing about any