The Expectation Paradox

"Experiential blindness” is the inability to perceive what you don’t already have a concept for. 

Expectations fall short of reality when: Someone says they hate a movie/book/song that you love. You put a ton of effort into something that ends up flopping. You learn that you’re the last person to find out about a shocking family secret. Some of your foundational beliefs are challenged in a way you aren’t prepared for. You get caught doing somet

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when we are born, we experience reality with very few “priors” – preexisting beliefs, expectations, conceptual schemas through which to filter what we see. And so a child’s experience is an endless explosion of vividness. Slowly we start to make sense of the world, we start to notice repeating patterns, we start to establish boundaries between “me”... See more