Still clinging to that imagined professional status, 30 years past its sell date.

He hangs on to his beloved hat long after forgetting he once wore it with irony.

I keep thinking we might be able to reverse-engineer this whole fucking disaster.

Another word for conceptual: simplistic.

You droned on, demolishing in the space of a few hours any previous possibility you might have been deemed interesting.

Sooner or later, one way or another, the workplace will steal your dignity.

Number one problem facing humanity: irony.

Others experienced his presence as an absence in themselves.

Imaginative acts were denounced as vectors of postcolonial oppression.

 {German word for missing something before it’s gone}

Were you a person of consequence?
Were you even a person?
Did you learn anything?
Was there still hope?
·
Nope, no, nyet, maybe.

He had, without realizing it, absorbed the professional trick of imputing grave urgency to statements of no importance.