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10/07/2010 10:14:29 PM · #1 |
For all people worrying out there, here's a short story- "The Worrying Logic".
(Inspired by the book: "The Worry Cure" by Robert L. Leahy)
A philosopher once learnt that natives in a remote jungle of Africa donât even know what worry is all about. Out of curiosity, he decided to find out the secret that what makes them not to worry. He traveled miles & miles to reach there, and met a wise man.
âItâs learnt that you people never worry about anything?â the philosopher asked.
âWorry? I have never heard about it. Seems to be something interesting. Please tell me about itâ asked the wise man.
âWell⦠Worry is⦠say⦠You worry when something bad happens.â
âWhy do you worry if it has already happened?â
âIt makes us feel bad.â
âBut, donât you worry if something bad hasnât happened?â the wise man asked.
âYes. Sometimes we do worry about bad things that havenât happenedâ.
âBut why do you worry about those things that havenât happened yet?â
âWell, they may happen.â
âBut they may not happen! And if they do happen, itâs natureâs will. You have little control over it.â
âYes. We do feel that when something bad happens, itâs our fault. We are responsible for it.â
âBut thatâs illogical thinking. I thought you are logical people!â
âYes we are. Thatâs why we look at all the possibilities.â
âOkay. What is the possibility that something going to happen will turn out to be really bad.â
âMay be one tenth.â
âWhat about the remaining?â
âIt may turn out to be good or neutralâ
âThen why donât you rejoice that there are greater chances of it being good or neutral?â
The philosopher was silent. He returned from the jungle with a wise advice.
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10/08/2010 02:23:35 AM · #2 |
The way I deal with something lost, is to admit that it is lost.
The way I deal with me, is to admit that I am me.
Thus I admit I am lost.
Me. 2010. |
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10/08/2010 04:04:06 PM · #3 |
How apocryphal!
A story based on a story, asserting (with no strong argument) that it is itself good advice.
I worry that 1/10 is a pretty wild guess for 'something going to happen' turning out badly. Is an imminent plane crash going to come out badly at approximately the same rate as a walk to the local ice cream store? Is he using his omniscience to calculate an absolute probability for the desirability of the outcomes of all possible actions?
I worry that the original author's promise of a stress free life is both unrealistic and unhealthy. My guess is the guy's never gone sky-diving.
In any case, I regret when something bad happens. Worry is not retroactive. Worry is about the unknown, the undiscovered as of now.
Finally, I worry nobody will parse the subtleties of my amusement in favor of assuming I'm just being cranky.
Message edited by author 2010-10-08 20:05:12. |
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10/10/2010 08:58:41 PM · #4 |
| "My life has been full of terrible misfortunes most of which never happened." - Michel de Montaigne. |
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10/10/2010 09:08:32 PM · #5 |
Originally posted by Mousie:
I worry that 1/10 is a pretty wild guess for 'something going to happen' turning out badly. Is an imminent plane crash going to come out badly at approximately the same rate as a walk to the local ice cream store? Is he using his omniscience to calculate an absolute probability for the desirability of the outcomes of all possible actions?
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I pray to disagree.
First of all, you can't tell whether something is going to happen. In my opinion, an imminent plane crash and an imminent accident while on a walk to the local ice cream store have about the same probability of turning out bad.
The author simply uses a metaphor to convey a message.
I may be wrong. I usually am!
Message edited by author 2010-10-11 02:08:08. |
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10/11/2010 06:40:26 PM · #6 |
Originally posted by kbhatia1967:
First of all, you can't tell whether something is going to happen. In my opinion, an imminent plane crash and an imminent accident while on a walk to the local ice cream store have about the same probability of turning out bad. |
While I take (strong!) issue with your assertion that you can't tell whether something is going to happen (a skill without which I doubt we could survive very long) let's take that off the table, and assume it's correct.
If you can't tell what's going to happen, how can you possibly know that 1/10 of the time it will be bad? It isn't a very coherent position... either you can know what will happen (10% chance of bad, 90% chance of neutral/good) or you can't (100% chance of having no idea). To me, that 1/10 seems like a number plucked from thin air purely to support an assertion... but that's not really the problem... it's that the 1/10 value itself means you have an idea about what will happen... or you could never have come up with a value in the first place.
I didn't say anything about an imminent accident while on the way to the ice cream store. You added that! I'm suggesting that standing on a sidewalk with delicious waffle-cone vapors wafting past is altogether different, in concrete, identifiable ways than standing in the aisle of a 747 that's five thousand feet in the air with smoking holes where the wings used to be. Would you give both situations a 1/10 chance of something really bad happening shortly afterward, walking that aisle vs. walking the sidewalk? I know I wouldn't... I'd be a lot more tense on the plane. But given your narrative's use of an incredibly broad 'something going to happen' without any qualifiers... and the flat 1/10 chance... it just seems a wee bit... innacurate.
Likewise, the value 1/10 is almost useless even if it were somehow correct... because it completely neglects to assign any sort of specific consequence to the 'bad' that follows. I could drink wine and get a splitting sulfur headache, or I could drink wine and say something I regret that ends my marriage, then crash my car into a telephone pole on the way to my new room at the hotel. These days, I'd give those odds at about 30% and 0.05%, respectively. Trying to pick a single value to represent all possible bad outcomes is futile at best. Your protagonist is speaking of things he can't possibly know, as if it were completely reasonable!
I'm taking you (and the story) to task a bit here because while I quite enjoy philosophical statements, I don't like them nearly as much when presented unfairly. I like them even less when couched in a folksy, dismissive judgment of modernity, positioned most often in terms of the noble, enlightened savage unburdened by the troubles of our society, who's supposedly pointing out the contradictions inherent in our strange ways. That's just pining for an innocent, worry-free past that never actually existed.
It's so much easier to just make a point (stop worrying so much!) and let it stand on it's own, instead of dressing it in the trappings of authority by peppering a story with words like 'wise', making up good looking numbers, or having the words come from the mouth of... well... some dude somewhere in a place we've never been and know nothing about and couldn't find even if we wanted to because 'natives' in 'Africa' could lead you to the doorstep of a continent, at best. Or from the mouth of a 'bested' philosopher, for that matter!
And I still think that regret is what you do with bad things in the past. You only worry that they might happen again.
I worry you'll have to hone this story a bit more before it would resonate with someone like me.
;) |
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10/11/2010 09:22:01 PM · #7 |
I am thankful that you took time to post this rather long post. A-mousie-ing!
BTW, what is the harm in believing a story even if it is figuratively incorrect, if it does a bit to lighten your worry problems.
Have a reading of "How to stop worrying..." by Dale Carnegie (by far, the highly acclaimed book on the subject) and you would have plenty of such stories.
Message edited by author 2010-10-12 01:26:55. |
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10/11/2010 09:38:39 PM · #8 |
Bingo! I'm not sure why Mousie is being so negative on this; the imparting of wisdom through parables is an established, ages-old tradition. Dale Carnegie was good at it... But maybe I'm missing something...
R. |
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10/12/2010 01:26:04 AM · #9 |
Originally posted by Bear_Music:
Bingo! I'm not sure why Mousie is being so negative on this; the imparting of wisdom through parables is an established, ages-old tradition.
R. |
Could it be that parables normally are not normally associated with mathematical equations but rather deal mostly with issues of mores, morals and societal values. While I may not necessarily agree with all of the points made by  Mousie, there is value in the argument made.
Personally, I tend to agree with the old adage that says:
"When you can keep your wits about you when all around you are losing theirs...it could be you do not fully appreciate the gravity of the situation." :O)
Ray |
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10/12/2010 01:29:49 AM · #10 |
Originally posted by kbhatia1967:
...BTW, what is the harm in believing a story even if it is figuratively incorrect, if it does a bit to lighten your worry problems. |
Hmmmmmmmm lemme see... Instances like the Jonestown Massacre come to mind...and there are other such examples.
Ray
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10/12/2010 09:40:21 PM · #11 |
| Submit your best "worry" quotes... |
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10/13/2010 07:23:01 AM · #12 |
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10/13/2010 11:33:40 AM · #13 |
Originally posted by RayEthier:
Originally posted by kbhatia1967:
...BTW, what is the harm in believing a story even if it is figuratively incorrect, if it does a bit to lighten your worry problems. |
Hmmmmmmmm lemme see... Instances like the Jonestown Massacre come to mind...and there are other such examples.
Ray |
Ray's tapping right into my angst here. :) I worry about these things. |
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05/03/2013 12:33:36 AM · #14 |
Originally posted by shanksware:
Pick one |
Thanks. Great Collection of "Worry Quotes". |
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05/03/2013 01:23:19 AM · #15 |
If you can not bother to think about (and by extension take action to avoid) a dangerous situation which will only occur one time out of ten, then you should be happy and well adjusted right up until the day next week when you are killed by that danger you decided not to worry about. I worry about people who think the world is such a nice place that worry should be expunged like polio or the guinea worm.
Message edited by author 2013-05-03 05:25:10. |
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05/03/2013 01:37:36 AM · #16 |
Boy I love the stuff you can find on the net.
Worry is bad right? It certainly is if you think so. If you think it is good for you, then it seems it is good for you. So you can choose.
"Jeremy Jamieson, assistant professor of social psychology at the University of Rochester, has done a series of experiments that reveal how the labeling of stress affects performance on academic testing.
The first experiment was at Harvard University with undergraduates who were studying for the Graduate Record Examination. Before taking a practice test, the students read a short note explaining that the studyâs purpose was to examine the effects of stress on cognition. Half of the students, however, were also given a statement declaring that recent research suggests âpeople who feel anxious during a test might actually do better.â Therefore, if the students felt anxious during the practice test, it said, âyou shouldnât feel concerned. . . simply remind yourself that your arousal could be helping you do well.â
Just reading this statement significantly improved studentsâ performance. They scored 50 points higher in the quantitative section (out of a possible 800) than the control group on the practice test. Remarkable as that seemed, it is relatively easy to get a result in a lab. Would it affect their actual G.R.E. results? A couple of months later, the students turned in their real G.R.E. scores. Jamieson calculated that the group taught to see anxiety as beneficial in the lab experiment scored 65 points higher than the controls."
50 points on the GRE is HUGE! Frankly I should have worried more in school. |
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05/03/2013 03:42:18 AM · #17 |
Originally posted by BrennanOB:
If you can not bother to think about (and by extension take action to avoid) a dangerous situation which will only occur one time out of ten, then you should be happy and well adjusted right up until the day next week when you are killed by that danger you decided not to worry about. I worry about people who think the world is such a nice place that worry should be expunged like polio or the guinea worm. |
most people worry because they love something enough to be afraid to lose it.
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