That's Not Cool

So according to University of Rochester psychologist Ilan Dar-Nimrod, being cool isn't cool anymore. Or maybe it is. It's kind of hard to say.

The original meaning of the word referred to an aspect of personality that encompassed detachment and an attitude of rebellion against society's norms. People who admired these cool folks wanted to emulate them so eventually the word came to mean something that a person admired and wanted to be like.

But because of that widespread use, "cool" has mostly lost its meaning, Dar-Nimrod suggests. It's become a word that can mean anything, so it really means not much of anything.

I can, however, cite two facts about "cool" that remain incontrovertible: 1) I'm not cool and 2) Me getting through this piece without once noting that a man who made a study of cool is named "Nimrod" has been one of the more difficult tasks of my blogging life.