People assume that they perceive reality as it is, that our senses accurately record the outside world. Yet the science suggests that, in important ways, people experience reality not as it is, but as they expect it to be.
Interpretation
Our perceptions of reality are influenced more by our expectations than by the actual world around us.
This quote highlights the notion that human perception is inherently subjective and shaped by personal expectations. Rather than experiencing reality in an objective manner, people interpret sensory information through the lens of their beliefs and anticipations, leading to a filtered and often skewed understanding of the world.
In practice
In a discussion about the nature of reality, one might use this quote to illustrate how our judgments can be biased.
The only way to maximize group creativity—to make the whole more than the sum of its parts—is to encourage a candid discussion of mistakes. In part, this is because the acceptance of error reduces cost. When you believe your flaws will be quickly corrected by the group, you're less worried about perfecting your contribution, which leads to a more candid conversation. We can only get it right when we talk about what we got wrong.
We need to be willing to risk embarrassment, ask silly questions, surround ourselves with people who don't know what we're talking about. We need to leave behind the safety of our expertise.
Knowledge can be a subtle curse. When we learn about the world, we also learn all the reasons why the world cannot be changed. We get used to our failures and imperfections. We become numb to the possibilities of something new
There's not some idea I'm going to create a work that's going to change everybody's consciousness.
There is no reality except the one contained within us.
So much of the past in encapsulated in the odds and ends. Most of us discard more information about ourselves than we ever care to preserve. Our recollection of the past is not simply distorted by our faulty perception of events remembered but skewed by those forgotten. The memory is like twin orbiting stars, one visible, one dark, the trajectory of what's evident forever affected by the gravity of what's concealed.
If you see your path laid out in front of you - Step one, Step two, Step three - you only know one thing . . . it is not your path. Your path is created in the moment of action. If you can see it laid out in front of you, you can be sure it is someone else's path. That is why you see it so clearly.
There are always people willing to commit unspeakable human atrocity in exchange for a little power and privilege.
A lie would have no sense unless the truth were felt as dangerous.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.