A tired day of muted notifications, coffee, beard talk, and delayed errands kept drifting until one old memory stood out: a cactus bought with care at a plant exhibition, then quickly eaten by Bingo the golden retriever....

I chase proof with IQ tests and ego math, but the real conflict is competence versus execution: I can score high and still struggle to translate a letter into Sinhala. The stake is whether I'm 'smart' or actually useful,...