Have I ever mentioned to you how I have absolutely not-at-all-any-sort-of-poker-face? I am incredibly expressive. It’s a gift, it’s a curse, just depends on the situation I find myself in.

The myriad of expressions I, errrr, express – with my face, but also in my gestures – are a representation of how I am feeling in the moment. Of course, sometimes you don’t want to be such an open book, not just in a poker game but also in a negotiation or when someone else is communicating their feelings towards you and perhaps you aren’t quite at a point of mirroring those same feelings back to them.

You may assume that expressions are the same thing as equations. Nope! A key difference is that expressions are one-sided and equations are two-sided.

Expression
3x + 4(x – y)

Equation
3x + 4(x – y) = 4(x + y) – 1

It appears that a mathematical expression has a lot in common with my expressive non-poker face.

In your world and mine, the value that any expression contributes to any sort of exchange of information IRL – be it a poker game, a negotiation, or an emotional reveal – is just one of the sides of that conversation – or just one part of who you are – aka, the equation.

An equation, on the other hand, is gonna tell you the whole story. It’ll include an expression and it will also include some sort of equivalence to that expression, right there on the other side of the = sign.

As I write this, it is Independence Day here in the U.S. Put a flag up, whatever flag you like, that you feel best expresses you. Acts of expression can be revealing, passionate, and even empowering. Consider, though, that they are also the representation of just one part / one side of a person’s whole story / equation.