You're A Liar!
Sometimes you just want to scream that at people. Call them out for the B.S. that they are feeding you. You know it's bunk, but how do you confirm that? How can you make them realize that they are not telling the truth?
Truth Is Everything
Knowing the truth is useful in all areas of your life. Knowing when to believe the used car salesman. Understanding when your kids are not being honest. Detecting deception of an employee. Seeing through the lies of politicians...
Knowing when you are being fed B.S. is a powerful skill. Reading faces. Body language. Spotting nervousness. These are all techniques that have been promoted as being reliable "B.S. meters", but they don't work as well as you may think. Some people are just pros at feeding you a line of B.S. In fact, the real pros actually believe their own B.S. Those are the truly dangerous ones.
Is there a better way to identify a liar?
In this article from Get Pocket, The Best and Worst Ways To Spot A Liar, there is a great discussion of ways that work, and those that don't, in detecting lies. It's worth a read, because it will quickly provide you with some easy tools to cut through the B.S. that we face everyday.
This simple technique is very powerful and it can help you spot a liar, not just in your own conversation, but from conversations of...
Facts vs Opinions
Facts are hard.
Opinions are soft.
Facts don't change.
Opinions can change.
People don't have "facts", people have opinions.
Know the difference.
No matter how hard you try, you can't change a fact.
No matter how hard you try, you can't stop people from changing their opinion.
Base your actions on facts not opinions.