Volume 5 · The Great Indian Bazaar · Essay 231

Social Drift Hypothesis

Social Drift Hypothesis begins with humility: it says, perhaps it is like this. Then it invites you to check.

Whether the hypothesis is finally true matters less than what it teaches you to notice. Good hypotheses are like good questions — they rearrange the furniture of the mind even when they are wrong.

It is worth keeping in your pocket not because it is always right, but because it is always available. A tool you carry beats a perfect tool you left at home.

Stand at a tea stall during a big cricket match and you will see a hundred strangers become one family in an evening. The same crowd, given a different match, can split over a surname.

Society is a long conversation; the only question is whether you are listening or merely waiting to speak. Print it on a card if you like. Better: print it on a habit.