Sometimes We Exaggerate the Truth

I’m known to exaggerate some claims when I get really deep into storytelling. I try hard to catch myself, or rein it in when I am going too far. Each time I exaggerate around someone who knows better, they call me on it. As they should. Over the last few years as my profile has become much more public, I’ve had to learn to be more accurate with the words I say. 

In moments when a preposterous statement is challenged, the response reveals a lot about a person’s character. To me, the confident route is to recognize the overstep, retract it and then restate what was meant with accuracy. The low self-esteem route is to double down and take the, “You can’t tell me nothing” route. 

Most of the time, the truth delivers the point as effectively as the exaggeration. When it doesn't, maybe the truth wasn’t as big of a deal as you once thought. All that being said, sometimes a good exaggeration will get you all kinds of attention and make you some money. 

Everyone tells tall tales of their glorious exploits, it’s very human. It’s okay, you can admit you did it. 

Exaggerating facts leads to cracks in credibility

When you listen to Alex Jones speak and actually fact check him, a lot of what he says is true. It was Alex Jones who taught me about the Tuskegee Study. He also does dangerous stuff like finds a possible link between chemicals and gay frogs and makes it about an agenda to chemically make the population become queer. 

When you speak about facts in public, you need to make a clear distinction between what’s real and what’s hyperbole. Truth is inherently a complex topic. There is subjective experience truth and there is objective reality truth. One of these is often known as “Your truth” and the other is known as “The truth”.

The onus of responsibility is always on the communicator to be clear. Often when exaggerated claims are made, there is an expectation that the audience automatically will discern the literal from the hyperbolic. In practice, real life doesn’t work like that, people are wildly ignorant to where the line of honesty exists with an exaggeration.

When you are a little too careless with your words, what happens is people get caught up on the semantics of how many books a person can actually read in a year. Great points that should otherwise be taken seriously are cast into doubt. This is especially true when people press your point to confirm if you meant what you said.

There are a lot of linguistically driven people who rely heavily on semantic arguments to win debates. What I learned watching them go full force on “catching” people in language-traps is that language is a confusing thing. Most people don’t speak on an equal level of understanding, so the nuance baked into what you say can easily be lost if you aren’t careful. Also I rarely see a debate won with semantics despite who got “owned”. 

What about the entertainment?

Sometimes exaggerations make a story more fire than reality. Any good storyteller will embellish details. Inherently there’s nothing wrong with that. You could argue that part of the art of storytelling is knowing exactly what needs to be embellished in a story. 

Context matters a lot. When you are on a podcast, goofing around and talking about trivialities, no one cares if you talk some shit. It’s still preferred to identify bullshit in some way, but when there are no stakes, there is no consequence. When the topic is serious, or the claims made are a key point that enhances your argument, it detracts from your credibility as a truth teller.

Evidence should not be embellished. Even when your mission is to deliver truth in a funny and compelling way. Exaggerating your proof simply means that your truth couldn’t stand on its own. I believe there are times like during a comedy special where rules like this should be overlooked. With the context of stand up, we can brace ourselves for the impact of the preposterous.

The people you encounter in life come from all walks of life. If they speak English, it may be a 4th language. The culture gap between you and that person can end up being big. This means if you embellish, exaggerate and play with your language, people may just believe you on a literal level. Keeping the exaggerations to the appropriate platforms is just a simpler way to more truth shared all around.

Whether or not someone actually read 12000 non-fiction books over the ages of 8-12 shouldn’t even be a consideration, and yet… Live Long and Prosper Everyone.