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In school, I was repeatedly told that there are two types of people in the world: one type answers the exam question to the best of their ability, and the other refuses to accept the premise of the question and explains why not. The second type of person gets the better grade. I like to think I proved that there is a third type of person - the one who doesn't understand the premise of the question in the first place - and yet this is undoubtedly a distinction that is worth knowing about. Robert McNamara used to say that he never answered the question he was asked: he answered the question he wished he had been asked. I like that, even if it's not my favourite trait in politicians, and I like the idea that there is leeway in this matter of questions and answers. I like to think that questions are not always to be trusted.
And yet I am increasingly aware that I don't often live by this advice. Testify, IKEA Kitchen VR Simulator, or whatever it's called. A couple of weeks back, Chris Bratt and I discovered that IKEA had made a VR thing for the Vive: a kitchen stuffed with wonderful IKEA furniture and utensils. I loaded it up and had a lovely ten minutes, rooting around in drawers, deciphering the lifestyley crap written on the aspirational full-wall chalkboard, and dropping IKEA meatballs on the floor when I was meant to be cooking them. (The jury may want to note that I also thought these meatballs were radishes.)
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