How to spot bullshit

I have a bachelor's degree in studio art. You know this, you had to sit in on some of the classes when you were a kid and I had no one else to leave you with for a few hours. What you may not know is that a side effect of an art degree is the development of an ability to dispense and detect bullshit. That is how you get through critiques in an age when concept trumps execution. For example, I had a classmate forget we had a critique until the morning of, so he emptied his wastebasket and stapled the contents to the wall. His explanation of his work had to do with our disposable society and rampant consumerism. Right. I've done it, too, but no examples just yet.

Now, I don't like giving or receiving bullshit, unless it happens to be the kind that's all in fun. You know, the kind where you pull someone's leg for a while and then look at them in a seriously-you-did-not-just-fall-for-that-line-of-crap sort of way. If it's not that kind of crap, I don't want any part of it. Neither should you. That means you have to get good at spotting it well in advance of it landing on your shoes.