Language can also lead us astray. Korzybski was fond of showing people how words shaped their experience of the world. In one famous anecdote, he shared a tin of biscuits wrapped in brown paper with his class. As everyone munched on the biscuits, some taking seconds, he tore off the paper, showing that he’d passed out dog biscuits. Several students ran out of the class to throw up. Korzybski’s lesson: “I have just demonstrated that people don’t just eat food, but also words, and that the taste of the former is often outdone by the taste of the latter.”
