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The Significance Of Knowing How Insignificant Our Expectations Are
How arrogant is it to think it was the world that was wrong all along, not our assumptions?
Expectations are always problematic. As projections of our knowledge and wisdom, they belong in the nebulous realm of the future but reside here in the tangible present. Expectations are more troublesome than predictions because of the difference in the subject’s degree of certainty: predictions are fanciful while expectations are meant to occur. Intellectually, it seems one should avoid expectations altogether.
Ah, Expectations!
However, negating expectations from our daily lives would be akin to condemning ourselves to a life without faith: that the world will keep on spinning, that our friends will have our backs, that our lovers will want us tomorrow as they do today. The line that separates the sceptic from the cynic is drawn by their expectations. A world from which we don’t expect much is likely to bear little fruit.
One of the most effective ways to discourage a disciple is to expect nothing from them. Indeed, while high expectations can exert crushing pressure, low expectations will demoralise most apprentices. As far as the expecting individual is concerned, a world we don’t expect much of is a…