Try the Easy-Looking Thing

It's a chilly Canberra evening at the senior citizen's club. Everyone's arranged in a grid, ready for an evening of line-dancing. Our instructor walks us through a dance step by step, in portions, then all at once to a beat — before we do it for real, to music. The group is open to any skill level, with beginner dances early in the night. When broken down, the steps are simple enough, and the group moves along by example. But when the music starts, that's when people lock in — moving to the same beat, adding their own flourishes, finding their flow.And watching it, you'd be forgiven for thinking — how hard can it be? Just like parking yourself in front of a Rothko and thinking the obvious, dear reader. It's a reflex we all seem to have, but one that rarely gets examined. The feeling of "I could do that" shows up everywhere — sometimes as genuine excitement, pulling someone toward a new hobby, but also as something more dismissive. A way of closing a door and walking past without…