When you assume, you make an ass out of u and me.
—Jerry Belson
Ahhh…the pitfalls of making a faulty first assumption.
This is a cute story from a few years ago. I woke up one morning to find the throw rug in the kitchen rather wet. I immediately assumed Sadie, my new (to me) 5-year-old Retriever, had peed on the floor.
I picked up the rug and gave it a quick sniff. Hmmm…didn’t smell like pee.
But what else could it be?
Now, truth be told, the rug was pretty soaked through, so if it was indeed pee, realistically the culprit would’ve had to have had a bladder the size of an elephant.
Still, it was sixty-pound Sadie who took the blame.
Why? Because my mind began rationalizing why Sadie had to be the reason behind the mystery liquid. In other words, I’d made my first assumption (pre-coffee, mind you) and then went to work coming up with evidence that would support it.
I knew from experience that dogs certainly do pee on the floor from time to time. Sadie never had, in the short time I’d had her, but there’s always a first time.
Then I thought back to the night before and how she’d come straight in the front door of the house from the car…without going to the bathroom in the yard before bed. Aha!
Yes, I thought to myself…all these factors clearly add up to the logical conclusion that Sadie was the source of the rather large wet spot on the kitchen floor rug. That the evidence didn’t match the accused’ size or behaviour didn’t seem to be an issue.
And so, smugly satisfied that I’d solved the mystery, I put the throw rug in the washing machine then put the coffee on. And it wasn’t until I went to get the cream out of the fridge and noticed how oddly warm the carton was, that it finally occurred to me that the liquid on the kitchen floor may, in fact, be connected to the fridge, which was obviously not working.
This, of course, was the case. My fridge was broken and had leaked. My dog’s normal-sized bladder was functioning just fine.
My point in all this?
When we make a faulty first assumption, we tend to have to expend an awful lot of valuable time and energy coming up with all sorts of subsequent rationalizations that serve to reinforce our original—but incorrect—assumption. For even when there is evidence to the contrary, our minds love to be right…even when we’re wrong.
Especially when we’re wrong.
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Previously Published on pinkgazelle.com
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