206 I Can Read You Like a Book A
As your age and your intelligence about how the world works
matures, your strategy for dealing with the world evolves as well.
Because each of us is a unique collection of genes and experiences,
this strategy is unique as well.
The real art to reading body language and thus analyzing (the
“A” in R.E.A.D.) what something means, is to learn to vivisect
these strategies and see the rituals, adaptors, barriers, illustrators,
and gesturing for what they really are: a language specific to the
person who is using it.
Your experiences and knowledge will give you a unique ability
to do this. You have the skill to see the minutia as a child would, a
model for the holistic, and the understanding of context won from
years of living. Now you need to use those tools to look at the
communication strategy of your subject. How much of what he is
saying with his body is intentional? How much involuntary? Are the
two aligned? Which is the most reliable?
In the next chapter, I will focus your attention on commu-
nication strategies of people in the limelight to see what works for
them. At least most of the time.
