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Confounded Expectations Noodling
Jan. 31st, 2007 10:46 amMost of the things that annoy or upset me, and I suspect a lot of other people, are the result of confounded expectations.
For example, on my shelf is a small gray box with a white paperclip outline on both sides. It contains...
staples.
It's from Woolworths' stationary range, which for a while used the paperclip design on all its packaging. Every so often I need a paperclip, I glance around and there's the box! Aha! But, no, and I can't seem to retrain my mind not to expect the box to contain paperclips. Gah!
Less prosaically, we have a lot of common expectations ("Parents are always loving", "Authority figures are fair", "Handles with knobs should turn, not slide") that are confounded too often, and yet we go on believing in the ideal we hold internally. Because to do otherwise is a step on the path down into cynicism and despair.
Perhaps we should welcome having our expectations confounded for reminding us that most of the time our expectations are confirmed and that the world works the way it should?
For example, on my shelf is a small gray box with a white paperclip outline on both sides. It contains...
staples.
It's from Woolworths' stationary range, which for a while used the paperclip design on all its packaging. Every so often I need a paperclip, I glance around and there's the box! Aha! But, no, and I can't seem to retrain my mind not to expect the box to contain paperclips. Gah!
Less prosaically, we have a lot of common expectations ("Parents are always loving", "Authority figures are fair", "Handles with knobs should turn, not slide") that are confounded too often, and yet we go on believing in the ideal we hold internally. Because to do otherwise is a step on the path down into cynicism and despair.
Perhaps we should welcome having our expectations confounded for reminding us that most of the time our expectations are confirmed and that the world works the way it should?
