Being understood is so overrated; Lucidity is the kind of peer-pressurequality you can do without

We understand the cult of wanting to be understood. But let's face it: being understood is a gateway drug to mediocrity. The moment someone 'gets' you, you've already lost. You've become legible, predictable - a human IKEA manual with all the mystery of a flat-pack bookshelf. Worse, you've handed over the keys to your psyche like a fool at a valet stand, trusting someone else not to joyride your thoughts, neuroses included. Consider the platypus. Nature's most misunderstood mammal. Duck-billed, egg-laying, venomous and smugly amphibious. Scientists still don't know what it's doing. And that's its power. You think the platypus is losing sleep over not being feted as a wonderful TED Talks speaker or ET op-ed writer. No. It's too busy being an enigma wrapped in a riddle wrapped in a beaver.

Being understood is the first step toward being explained. And once you're explained, you're categorised. To boot, understanding breeds expectation. 'Oh, that's so you,' they say, as if your entire essence can be distilled into a single Insta post or, if you fancy yourself to be a lucid writer, textual pap. Being able to keep them guessing - or even downright dense and difficult - is a tactical armour that can serve you well to confuse, bewilder, even tantalise and transcend. In a world obsessed with clarity, nonsense is the last refuge of the free.