The Hindsight Genius Effect

Hey readership. Tonight, I was chillin' with some of my homeslices (Jesus and JavaGrava, and Mr. Sanchez joined a little later), and Jesus, ironically enough, had an epiphany. Lemme spit it as it went down in H-Town.

Have you ever done something amazing? Like, "remember it and treasure it always, and every time something remotely related to it comes up in conversation, retell it in true 'HOLY BLACK JESUS DID I TELL YOU THAT STORY!?' fashion" amazing? I'm talkin' the stuff of legend - the stuff that the witnesses' children will be telling THEIR grandchildren. The stuff that will never be forgotten, or at the least never remembered in the correct order.

Of course. Everybody with at least one crazy friend has at least one such story. And when that story was happening, you were scared maybe. Exhilirated definitely. And when whatever it was that happened finished, you felt like you had just conquered the entire universe and made each and every occupant your bitch. The feeling is unquestionably one of the best you'll ever experience, and the euphoria lasts well into the next day.

And then, the Hindsight Genius Effect kicks in.

For those who don't know what the Hindsight Genius Effect is (i.e. everyone besides me, Jesus and JavaGrava), allow me to explain. As I stated above, the euphoria lasts for a day and some change. During that day and change, you're reliving the event, be it an actual escapade, a joke, a snappy comeback, etc. You go through every single detail of it, from the position you were in, to the weather, to the lighting, to any music that was playing - every detail of the event and the atmosphere around it . . . and then you start to think.

There's where you go wrong - you start thinking. "How could I have improved this?" It's a natural human desire, to be better, to improve upon the past. However, in doing so, you take what was hitherto an amazingly epic memory and turn it into a hollow shell of "what could've been."

You could've said "monkeytwat" instead of regular ol' "twat." You could've ran up the wall to the roof instead of climbing the ladder. Etc. etc. etc.

The fact of the matter is this: there's always a better way to do shit. All you need is a little time and a batshit-crazy imagination (friends of questionable moral compasses help too), and you'll easily think of a way that that epic adventure could've been more epic. But don't look at this realization that you could've done something 1000000x better as a negative. Rather, realize that you did the best you could with the little bit of time you had to react, and that next time, you'll do a shit-ton better.

Ya fuckin' pussy.

Stay classy