Every now and then, a “Thought of the Day and Question of the Day” pairing ends up feeling like it’s been sitting on the same park bench for years, waiting for you to notice. Today’s duo is like that, one about the sharp satisfaction of outsmarting someone who thought they had you fooled, and the other about imagining a life stuck in your perfect season. One’s about mental chess, the other about cozy sweaters. Both are worth exploring.
Thought of the Day: It is double pleasure to deceive the deceiver.
Machiavelli wasn’t exactly a “hug it out” kind of guy, but he understood the human condition better than most. This quote gets at a certain undeniable truth: when someone tries to pull one over on you, catching them in the act is satisfying, but turning the tables? That’s victory with a cherry on top.
It’s not about living your life in suspicion or turning every relationship into a spy novel. It’s about recognizing that some people operate with an agenda, and occasionally, you get the rare opportunity to flip the script. There’s a clean, almost cinematic satisfaction in it, think Ocean’s Eleven, but with fewer tuxedos and more “I knew you were lying when…”
Of course, the danger here is smugness. Outsmarting the deceiver shouldn’t become your personality trait. It’s like hot sauce, amazing in small doses, but nobody wants to sit next to the person who dumps it on everything.
If you’ve ever had a moment like this, you know exactly what Machiavelli meant. And if you haven’t, I’d point you toward my earlier post on recognizing knowledge make you unfit to be a slave and another on missing the obvious. Both are useful when life starts looking like a chessboard.
Question of the Day: If you could live in any season forever, which one would it be and why?
For me, it’s autumn in the Northeast United States, hands down, no contest. The trees are on fire (in the good way), the air has just enough bite to make you reach for a sweater but not enough to freeze your soul, and the smell of fireplaces floats through the neighborhood like some sort of nostalgic perfume.
Autumn has the perfect energy. It’s reflective but still lively, colorful but not chaotic. It’s the season that says, “I’ve got one foot in the party and one foot in a good book by the fire.” If I had to choose forever, I’d pick that exact balance.
Living in one season forever sounds romantic, but it also reveals a lot about who we are. A winter person might be resilient and quietly tough. A summer person might be all about joy and activity. A spring person is probably an optimist. And autumn people? We’re realists who know beauty is fleeting—which is what makes it worth savoring.
I once wrote about how the changing seasons can change you, and it still rings true. Even if we could live in one forever, part of what makes a season magical is knowing it won’t last.
Join the Conversation
Have you ever flipped the script on someone who thought they had you cornered? And what’s your forever season? Leave a comment below or join my daily email so we can keep the conversation going—one thought and question at a time.