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Si Dawson: The Moments That Define Us
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Si Dawson: The Moments That Define Us
4 weeks ago · 2 comments
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Si Dawson: The Moments That Define Us
I use an awful lot of those sorts of phrases, because, well, they describe precisely what I mean. "probably going to be that way" because, on balance of likelyhoods, it probably will be that way. "I'll figure it out" because I will. I honestly expect to figure it out, without any problems at all. "I guess", "I need to", because I do guess, and I do need to.
This is, I suspect (ooo, another one) one of the differences in the way I think to the way everyone else thinks. Or something similar.
I'll think on it. There is a solution there somewhere...
Rather than saying "it will happen" or "it will not happen", I'm giving what I consider to be an accurate prediction of what I expect to happen. Either it will happen or it won't, but at the time I speak, I'm speaking in statistically probable values; there's a 75% chance it will happen, or there's a 95% chance it won't happen (obviously, these are not both the same chance; unless the former is "if person a does x" and the latter "if person a fails to do x in a timely manner") - either way, it's specific.
And I need to be aware of the fact that other people aren't thinking statistically, and adjust my usage appropriately; either specify that, or, likely (hah!) more usefully, change my verb choice to something more confident...