Early in my career, I worked with a fellow who was twice my age and full of memorable stories about his life and adventures. He had a lot of experience, he mentored me on technology and, more importantly, on how to meet and manage expectations in a corporate environment.
One day, I bumped into to someone my colleague had mentioned in one of his stories. “I heard about the time that you and Mark went to Place X, and Y and Z happened. That must have been amazing.”
The guy gave me a puzzled look. “That’s not what happened at all.”
“Oh, I see.”
I’m an earnest person. By default, I expect other people to be earnest and forthright as well. When I meet some who, shall we say, exaggerates fluently (I’ll use polite wording), I tend to believe that they mean that they say.
It stings a big when we find out that what we believed about someone wasn’t true, but I prefer to trust people in most instances. I don’t want to go though life cynically assuming that people aren’t being truthful. “Fool me once, shame on you.”
The downside of trusting someone isn’t serious in most cases. We can let them believe that we believe their nonsense without getting into trouble, because most of what people say isn’t particularly consequential. Should a lack of truthfulness lead to a dangerous situation, I have confidence that I would recognize the risks before it goes too far.
We encounter a variety of exaggerators through the course of our lives: poseurs, schemers, manipulators, fabulists, propagandists, provocateurs. There is value in regarding their stories with skepticism and demanding that they justify their wilder claims, but I refuse to doubt the sincerity of every person I meet simply because some of them project an appealing fantasy.
© 2026 Daniel R. South
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