“Green” by Adam Zerner

1

Alice: My favorite color is green.

Bob: Oh, cool. Mine's red.

Months later...

Bob: Hey, I got you this green painting. I remember you saying your favorite color is green and I thought you'd like it.

Alice: Oh. Um, that's nice of you, but I actually don't really like green. My favorite color's not green — it's blue.

Bob: Oh. I coulda sworn you had said green.

Alice: Oh, I think I did say green. But, um, Bob... you really shouldn't take things people say so literally all of the time.

Bob: Blinks. I'm confused.

Alice: Ok. Well, I mean, yeah, I think I did say green. But, like, I was just kinda gesturing at the area where my favorite color is. And I obviously didn't mean, like, literally green.

Bob: Obviously?

Alice: Yeah. Green is a secondary color. Who chooses a secondary color as their favorite color. My favorite color is obviously going to be a primary color.

Bob: Ok. That was quite far from being obvious to me, but ok. But — and I have a feeling you're going to accuse me of being too analytical for saying this — but even if I infered that [...]

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Outline:

(00:08) 1

(02:27) 2

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First published:
July 1st, 2026

Source:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/NyKqHj5C9nRX2bvAC/green

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.