Two kinds of people...

[Blogger's note: this blog post became so long, what with all of the examples included, that I have split it into two posts. Today's post covers the "two kinds of people" aspect, and tomorrow's post will cover the other aspect. --KB]

I love it when people say that there are two kinds of people in the world. You know that they are then going to give you their theory about the two kinds. It doesn't really give you so much an idea about the two types of people in the world, but it does give you some insight into what is important to the speaker.

People have all kinds of “two types” theories; just google the phrase and you'll see multitudes of quotations on the subject. Here are just a few:

Most famous is probably Robert Benchley's Law of Distinction: “There are two kinds of people in the world, those who believe there are two kinds of people in the world and those who don’t.” 

Mark Twain was absolutely full of the “two types” adages, adapting the phrase to many situations, people, and purposes. Just a few of his were:
“There are basically two types of people. People who accomplish things, and people who claim to have accomplished things. The first group is less crowded.” “There are two types of speakers: those that are nervous and those that are liars.”
“There are two kinds of fools. One says, ‘This is old, therefore it is good.” The other says, ‘This is new, therefore it is better.’ Let us be thankful for the fools. But for them, the rest of us could not succeed.”
“There are two times in a man’s life when he should not speculate: when he can’t afford it, and when he can.”
There are two kinds of poets: the ones who tell the stories, and the ones about whom the stories get told.

But, of course, Mark Twain was not the only “two type” observer.

“For my grandfather, there were two kinds of people in the world: Those who agreed with him, and those who hadn’t yet agreed with him.” -- B. Spira

“There are two kinds of people in the world: the Givers and the Takers. The difference between the two is that the Takers eat well, and the Givers sleep well at night.”--Joy Mills

There are two types of people: those who come into a room and say, “Well, here I am!” and those who come in and say, “Ah, there you are.” (Abigail Van Buren)

And then there are thousands more examples. Like I said, google it yourself (if you happen to have a couple of hours to kill). By the way, I believe in attribution, so all of the above quotations were gleaned from a blog: http://danspira.com/meme-collection/etc.... But, as I said, sites about the two types are all over the place.

Well, here's my “two types” theory for the day (I'm sure I'll have another one tomorrow).

There are two types of people in the world: those who like so-called logic problems and those who don't.

You can probably guess which type I am by my use of the word “so-called” to describe these problems. By “logic problems” or “logic puzzles,” people mean “math.”