Context matters far more than you could possible realize. If you don't set expectations early, and often, your chances of being wrong continue to increase.
That is the first actual beginning, to the first actual chapter, to my very real book about coincidences and the universe; absurdity and probability. If you would like to read more of this book, side effects may include insomnia, existential dread, quiet contemplation, and a lot of time taken to decide what to do next. Eventually we'll get into the harder facts of life, e.g. mental health, religion, and the simulation hypothesis.
Ok. let's discuss what I've done so far.
1. I have set a shit ton of expectations.
2. I have offered a lot of context.
Context and expectations makes it harder to be wrong. If not, you can rest assured there's a super easy fix. If you're manipulative enough to shape the world to the whims of one person, context and expectations become paramount.
I have a lot of military training on surviving, evading, resisting, and escaping. This training made me aware of a lot of things, but it also makes me very paranoid when I don't always have to be (I'd like plancks constant for 500 please). This state of mind is great for things like flying a plane or navigating Florida traffic, but it has it's weaknesses.
How many times has someone asked a woman when the baby is due and she is not pregnant? I'll tell you a story about my mental health appointment with the Flight Doctors a few days ago. Before the appointment I got a phone call from what appeared to be a spoofed number. I answered. A scraggly voice was on the other end of the line, she said her name was Sarah while the reception crackled. She wanted my social so I could be properly referred to an endocrinologist (is that like an anthrochronologist?). I felt the bullshit meter swinging and the cats started hissing at each other. I told her I didn't want to give that information over the phone. Hopefully you see where this was headed.
I found her after my appointment, a sweet black lady in the mental health office and I fixed it in 30 seconds: by saying I was sorry.
You can be right, you can be wrong, you can be VERY wrong, or you can hurt someone and still be right. But only you can apologize. Only you can control the context and set the expectations.
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Now, this chapter needs some filler. Some bullshit. So let's talk about predicting the future...
Flip a coin and call heads or tails. Did you get it right? You just predicted the future. Wrong? You can't predict the future. Now do that again 100 times over the course of three days. That's what I did, the odds are 1 in 2^100. However no one but me saw the outcome, so I'm the only person in the world who thinks it'll work again.
Now can we shift the public opinion away from angry wife-beater addict please?
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