Can We Have a Random Act of Kindness Day? How I Was Punked Today

Okay, I am a spoil sport: But please think twice before you do a group prank today.

Context: I’m on an email circulation for interdisciplinary research. In other words, the e-mail list consists of people from different departments.

A colleague in a different department sent out a note, with an attachment, announcing a symposium featuring several papers presented by UIUC colleagues.

Within minutes, one colleague replied to all, stating: “I’d go, but I just can’t get motivated . . .”

*Wow*, I thought. How ugly. How rude.

A second colleague replied: “Very disappointed that I was not invited to present my paper: ‘The effect of annual reports on academic productivity: An indifference-in-indifference test.’”

Holy smokes! These people have real problems, I thought.

I discreetly asked the sender of the notice: What’s up?

Answer: April Fools!

If I had opened the announcement, it would be obvious to me (I hope).

If I were closer to the group, it probably would have been obvious to me.

But I didn’t open the announcement; and the e-mail circulation list goes outside the building to others across campus.

I am more gullible than most people.

The joke is on me …. Unless others who are situated like me also got fooled like me and have drawn incorrect inferences about the main work group.
Then, the joke, sadly, is on that group of people for we have all misjudged them.

Instead of having a national day for fooling people, it would be better to use April 1^st as a Random Act of Kindness Day.