Pointing out the Extremely Obvious

You may be wondering why I would write a hub about pointing out the extremely obvious. If it isn't obvious to you, read on.

As a conversational starter there are planned phrases, rehearsed phrases, topics that have been learned or memorized, or very simple expressions like 'hello', or 'good morning'. A useful method that I developed was to take a note of the immediate surroundings and point something out that is very obvious, something that a person wouldn't normally pick out. By doing this you get the person you are speaking with to agree with you, which is an excellent first step in a communication. Let me give you some examples:

• To a person with a striped shirt (white and yellow): Is your shirt white with yellow stripes or yellow with white stripes?
• To a person holding a pen: It appears to me that you are holding a pen.
• To a person that is with you in a park where there are some trees: That's a tree over there.
• At work, there is a post-it note pad on the desk: You have a post-it note pad on your desk.

As you can see, the examples can go on ad infinitum. Often I will get back something like 'yes, so?' or 'why are you mentioning this' or some variation of these two. Normally if it is the first or second time that I point out the extremely obvious to that person I will say something like 'I like to point out the extremely obvious as it helps to tie me down to reality as otherwise I might float up into an ethereal plane and cease to exist'. This normally gives me an odd look, but occasionally I'll get a knowing look which makes all of this ridiculousness worth it.

Once I have pointed out the extremely obvious to the same person a few times, I no longer say that I would float away, because the person has now become accustomed to this practice. In many cases by doing this the other person retorts by pointing out something else that is equally extremely obvious.

• Me to a person sitting at their desk: That's a chair you are sitting on.
• That person back to me: Yes, you are wearing shoes.

I had trouble categorizing this hub as there is no inane category. Should we lobby for one to be created?

You should try pointing out the extremely obvious at least three times within the next day after you read this hub. You can then report back here as to how it went.