Best Exam Answer Ever.

While waiting for trial to begin this week, our conversation turned to university philosophy courses. It triggered my memory of a tale about the best exam answer ever.

In one of my graduate philosophy classes, a classmate recounted that his undergraduate philosophy professor gave an exam with a single instruction. The professor placed a chair on a table in the front of the class and instructed, “Prove that this chair doesn’t exist."

One ingenious (and brave) student answered with a two-word response, “What chair?”

It’s all about the burden of proof--and brevity. As Shakespeare observed in Hamlet, "Brevity is the soul of wit."