The Magic of the Clipboard

Today is our class' 100's night celebration. We celebrate 100 days until graduation with a big dinner where we also find out our first base assignment. Our class color is silver. In order to show class pride, I wore a silver blanket around all day kind of like a cape along with my class colored baseball hat. I got a lot of confused looks, especially from teachers who weren't familiar with our official class color, but what really struck me was the fact that nobody told me to take off my cape or hat throughout the day. This was an excellent example of what I call the "confidence principle."

As long as you look like you know what you're doing, nobody questions you. All you need to do is have self-confidence and remain composed and everyone around you assumes you have a good reason to be doing what you're doing. Around the Academy, there are two items which reinforce this principle: the walkie-talkie and the clipboard. If you walk around with a walkie-talkie, you are THE authority. Whatever you say goes and nobody can stop you. The same goes for the clipboard, as long as you look down at it with a dissatisfied look every once and a while you are obviously important.

This makes me want to conduct a social experiment. I'm considering showing up to school in a few weeks dressed in a chicken costume. I'm betting right now I would be able to get away with it.