In deference to the paradigm established by venerable brother of mine Mark "Darth" Harbison, this "Deep Thought" strives to represent the general will of AJ's mind and does not necessarily reflect his views.
The Proverbial Glass: Half Empty or Half Full?
If I've been drinking the glass from when it was full, then left it at half, it's half empty. If the glass is just there, then it's half full. And, of course, it's all about visual perception and illusion. If the fluid in the glass is slightly higher or slightly lower than exactly half, that'll influence your perception. Also, if the glass has a pattern of horizontal lines, you may be inclined to rate it as half empty, whereas if it had a pattern of vertical lines, it may influence you to rate it as half full (you know how they say wearing vertical stripes makes you look taller?). Another influencing factor is this: in which order is the question asked? When you say "Is the glass...", do you say "half empty" or "half full" first? If you say half empty first, it may exert a subliminal sort of subconscious influence to which one reacts negatively and would then respond "half empty," whereas putting "half full" first could be an influence in the opposite direction. So, in the end, it's all about illusion and manipulation anyway.
Of course, one could also completely dodge the question by asking: That depends. What exactly is IN the glass?
P.S. Link to Mark's Deep Thought #1: Why Is The Sky Blue?
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4 comments:
*gasp* AJ's finally catching up with me!
:-P
Seriously, though, dude, I said that stuff years ago. I came to those conclusions long ago, I simply did not publish them.
In any case, whether I had already come to those conclusions or not, it was still interesting. (It does indeed seem like something that could come up in a discussion with Sarah . . .)
weeeeirdo
So that's my problem (not that I feel it's really a problem). It's the vertical stripes!!!
I just never understood why we took such a thing to try and tried to extrapolate people's overall optimism/pessimism from it.
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