Airplane solitude

Therapists apparently run a risk of receiving unwanted life stories from the passengers sitting next to them on airplanes.

I like this deterrence strategy:

Niranjan S. Karnik, a psychiatrist and sociologist who teaches at the University of Chicago, said he often told seatmates, “ ‘I’m a sociologist.’ That’s an effective conversation-ender.”

My strategy is to read an article with lots of math in it. That deters nearly all would-be conversationalists.

Via: U of Chicago magazine email