The making of...

Recently, I've wondered about things that tremendously simplify our life. As human beings, we've been making them for as long as we exist. Some of them are big, some small enough to be left to our subconsciousness. I'm talking about assumptions and the way we make them. Generally, we use them as a sort of a staring point. What do I mean? Well, humanity has been developing for long time and especially recent years brought us rapid progress in science and technology but also psychology. A lot of people discovered a lot of things. This knowledge is compressed and passed to children at school. After several years of education we have this starting point that composes of information (assumptions) that are more rather than less true. But the process of actually making assumptions starts earlier. The first assumption you had a very good chance of making was when you were a baby. Back then you just cried to get whatever you needed at the moment. After a couple of times you noticed that someone usually comes, so the sequence of cause and effect appears in your head. It is natural for humans to use assumptions, because not only we are taught them but also we are accustomed to making them on our own. And there is nothing wrong with having them, because as I said, they make life easier. You assume that when you press a button the elevator will come down, or when there is snow outside it is probably cold, you assume that the old lady couldn't rob the bank. Everybody does that. They are helpful, hasten drawing conclusions and decision making. There is, however, a great problem with them. We assume that since everybody has assumptions and lots of them are indistinguishable to the details, the other person has the same set of assumptions. And that assumption is wrong (sorry for the overuse of the word assumption). That is why, things obvious to us are completely unclear for others. This can lead to serious misunderstandings. What is more, because of them you turn your attention to certain things, behaviors, words, actions while underestimating some other. Order and importance of them differs significantly form person to person (well, that's stating the obvious). Therefore, from time to time, I go over the process of validating my set of assumptions. I don't need to question every, single one of them but nonetheless I need to be mindful of them. It might come in handy, when you meet someone new, especially of the opposite gender.