View Single Post
Old 05-15-2009, 10:20 AM   #34
devonin
Very Grave Indeed
Retired StaffFFR Simfile AuthorFFR Veteran
 
devonin's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: Ontario, Canada
Age: 40
Posts: 10,098
Send a message via AIM to devonin Send a message via MSN to devonin
Default Re: 1 + 1 = Invalid: cannot add distinct objects

Quote:
Even if you know he exhibits and X emotion and you know Y incident happened to him, no matter what you know about the natural tendencies of humans he will not act the same as another person in the same situation.
One assumes if you are drawing conclusions about the emotional state of a person, you are basing them on your knowledge of -that person's- emotional tendencies and history rather than saying "I'd be upset if my girlfriend broke up with me, he's upset, therefore his girlfriend broke up with him." I mean, we're assuming in this example that he's both upset and his girlfriend broke up with him, as well as assuming that I -know- his girlfriend broke up with him? And also that I at least know him more than 'not at all'?

Quote:
For example, someone who sees a medical procedure with high success rates and comes to the conclusion that it is safe for them and gets massively taken surprise and angry when it goes differently for them.
Right, but being upset that something with a 1 in 1000 failure rate failed for you isn't the same as being upset that something with a 1 in 1000 failure rate failed at all. I'm pretty sure that most people can and do become aware of the fact that something with a failure rate -has failed- and very well -may fail them- I've seen people going to undergo "standard procedures" with incredibly low failure rates take all the time beforehand to work out exactly what will happen if the procedure fails. And I think the majority of people about to undergo a serious procedure like that do the same.

Also, if you went into the hospital for something pretty standard, say an appendectomy or something similar, and it got botched, you woudln't be at all angry? You don't think you -should- be at all angry? YOu think life for everyone would be better if we just accepted things going wrong that had no particular business going wrong?

Quote:
Some people have high expectations and get angry when something doesnt go their way (usually based on whatever system they relied on to produce whatever result they expected) whereas someone of different expectations will act differently in the same situation. Anger, frustration, and all other emtions of the type can be remedied if it takes a different perspective.
This sounds like you're saying "Always assume the worst" because if we NEVER have ANY expectations, our expectations can never be let down. But it is precisely -high expectations- and -lofty goals- that have allowed us to advance as far as we have. If everybody gave up when the first thing didn't go their way, just shrugged it off and went to do something else, how many scientific, technological, and creative breakthroughs just wouldn't have happened? People seeing something they want fail, getting pissed off, and redoubling their efforts is how important things get done. Sure it might feel nicer for each individual to just set the bar really low, so they are never upset when things go sour, but ugh, I could never live such a blasé life.

Last edited by devonin; 05-15-2009 at 10:23 AM..
devonin is offline   Reply With Quote