Social Animal

When they say 80% of communication is non-verbal, are they saying that that proportion of the time, we might as well just be gorillas making ape-sounds?  It would almost be more honest if we reverted to grunting noises, since, as they say, most interactions are just social positioning, and the substance of whats being said is pretty much meaningless; its just a pretext to convey the status of the relationship.

If you work in an office, you'll hear happy-sounding dullards going through the motions of making a joke; they always laugh, whether or not the joke itself was funny.  They should cut out the bullshit, eliminate the words, and just make monkey noises.

If someone resents you, no matter what you say, they'll reflexively disagree with you, as though gagging up a rebuttal at the sound of your voice; you could say the most indisputably true thing in the world and they'll find some way to argue with it.  If you say "its raining out", they'll say "not in Indiana".  With many people, the only substantive information they convey is that they're gorillas with nothing meaningful to say.

I'm right.  Don't argue.  Just make monkey noises.