Sometimes, our expectations are out of line with the reality of the situation, and how things are likely to turn out.


Other times, we’re able to make some fair judgment calls based on reliable past experiences

Which is why today’s words of wisdom, words that build off of my notion of Appreciating the Spectrum(s), involve managing expectations, as it’s easy to be irrationally driven by knee-jerk reactions in our everyday. Everyone on the planet is going to have expectations, we are thinking, feeling entities, and how we operate so efficiently is by cataloging how we perceive and categorize reality at large. This can be helpful, as it allows us to use short hands in dealing with a myriad of contexts and vectors we might interact with on the regular, and perhaps begin to grow accustomed to how they work, or what we can expect of them.

The philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein had a fun way to refer to fundamental aspects of existence, in what he would refer to as “the hinges of reality”, and they kind of represent the metaphorical concept of what the abstract of our surroundings are contingent upon, the metaphysical essence of what we sometimes take for granted, but know for sure is true. We don’t have to check if the sun rose in the morning, just like we don’t have to be worried about the oxygen we breath to be poisonous, because we are so use to them functioning in such a way, those hinges are safe to create expectations upon, and thusly, assist us in our everyday.

This kind of expectation, the one where we can hinge a notion upon it realistically, are exactly the kind we can rely on. But be warned, while there are a plethora of great examples of these kind of old reliable hinges where the expectations are essentially 100%, you’ve got to make sure not to mistaken all of the elements of your everyday in the same way, or you’ll likely to be burned as a result, as anything with any probability factor of uncertainty involved will certainly remind you the first chance it gets. Murphy’s Law dictates what can go wrong, will go wrong…as such always consider the odds, and prepare accordingly.

So, next time you are creating an expectation for how something is likely going to go, or how an interaction with a person most probably might go down, just stop and think to yourself: Am I hinging an expectation on this unfairly? And have I thoroughly considered just how familiar and dependable with this situation I truly am? Is this notion I am considering as reliable as a rising sun? What have I not accounted for? You could consiser this methodology of thought some abstract form of mathematics, as you calculate the likely outcome based on some personal experience that can help you formulate your own personal version of what could be considered “social math”. This might save you a lot of heartache, and help you gain a clearer head of perspective moving forward, as you more appropriately “hinge on your expectation realistically”.

As always, take care of yourself, and others.

~Pashford