If it’s not rocket science, what is it?
The science of deduction.
R De Braganza, Kilifi, Kenya
• As easy as pie.
David Tucker, Halle, Germany
• Common sense.
Philip Stigger, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada
• Beats me – perhaps you should ask Kim Jong-un?
Noel Bird, Boreen Point, Queensland, Australia
• Hopefully understandable, but possibly oversimplified.
Lawrie Bradly, Surrey Hills, Victoria, Australia
• Straightforward and down to earth.
Charlie Bamforth, Davis, California, US
• A no-brainer.
Sunil Bajaria, London, UK
• Here in Ontario, with its late frosts and short warm summers, it’s knowing just when to plant out the arugula.
John Caryl, Orillia, Ontario, Canada
Knowing me, knowing you
If we knew everything about each other, would we like each other more or less?
An old definition of a friend: someone who knows all about you and likes you anyway.
Bruce Inksetter, Gatineau, Quebec, Canada
• It’s likely that the more we know about each other, and discovered in the process that we share the same private, unadmitted doubts and fears, then we’d at least be more sympathetic to each other, and even like ourselves better.
Richard Orlando, Westmount, Quebec, Canada
• I don’t believe I’ll ever really know myself no matter how much I research. I still more or less like everybody else regardless.
Malcolm Campbell, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
• It is a joy to keep finding out new things about other humans, so I’m not sure about liking them, but life would certainly be less interesting if we knew everything about them already.
David Isaacs, Sydney, Australia
• Maybe not like more but understand more.
Pat Phillips, Adelaide, South Australia
I can’t read my own writing
What would the world be like today if we never had the internet?
Without the internet, life would be more leisurely, with time to smell the roses.
Reiner Jaakson, Oakville, Ontario, Canada
• Surely there would not be this sad decline in attractive cursive handwriting.
William Emigh, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
• Perhaps full of people doing things by the book.
Anthony Walter, Surrey, British Columbia, Canada
• Like back in the old days (as a teenage friend described it) when people didn’t live life through a screen and weren’t addicted to the dopamine hit from their smart-phones.
Margaret Wilkes, Perth, Western Australia
Popular disagreement
Is there anything the matter with populism?
What’s not to like about caring for the common people? If our governments were better at it, then narcissistic, self-serving, wannabe dictators wouldn’t get anywhere by claiming to care.
Margaret Wyeth, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
• Yes, there is something the matter in that I haven’t the faintest idea what it means.
Lizzie Wagner, Masterton, New Zealand
• The people?
Michael Olin, Holt, UK
Any answers?
Were you in love with your first car?
Reiner Jaakson, Oakville, Ontario, Canada
Why is it that, as you grow older, your shirt buttons and the zips on your flies seem to get smaller?
John Ryder, Kyoto, Japan
Send answers and more questions to weekly.nandq@theguardian.com
