There’s a surprising amount of wisdom in A. A. Milne’s classic stories of Winnie-the-Pooh. If you haven’t read them for a long time, you could do much worse than try them again. As one small example, I find there’s a lot of Owl Speak around as we get older, where we could all probably benefit from a dose of Pooh’s simplicity. Owl never uses a short, simple word when a long and complicated one would do. For example, in one revealing exchange, Owl explains:

“Well, the customary procedure in such cases is as follows.”

“What does Crustimoney Proseedcake mean?” said Pooh.

…”It means, the Thing to Do.” says Owl.

We learn more and more Owl Speak the more time we spend in school, only to have to work to remove it when we are older.

Both quotes are from The House at Pooh Corner. Or, if you prefer to have the wisdom called out, you could try The Tao of Pooh, by Benjamin Hoff.

How to speak plainly, by Pooh Bear

‘Tis the season for these powerful things. Turns out sneezes can travel up to 8 m, coughs up to 6m and they can linger in the air for up to 10 minutes.

All the more important to make sure you’re doing your Dracula sneeze into your sleeve.

Sneezes and coughs

The classic game theory dilemma where two prisoners are individually offered a deal if they’ll betray the other prisoner. But if they both betray each other then it’s bad news for both of them. What they choose depends on what they think the other will choose.

The prisoner’s dilemma