Brian Shaler

Ah, the age-old optimism vs pessimism metaphor. What does a realist say about the glass’s liquid level?

I think a realist would choose one or the other based on observations, and say it’s half empty if it had recently been emptied from a full level or half full if it had just been filled up.

If someone hands you a full beer and you drink half of it, your beer is half empty. Half is the progress you have made so far on emptying the glass of beer.

If someone asks a realist if a glass of beer he or she has never seen before is half empty or half full, the realist would likely take into consideration whether or not is any beer foam residue above the beer level to indicate that it had been partially emptied. “It’s half-empty,” the realist would reply. You could poor half a glass of beer for that same realist, and he or she would likely complain, “Hey! My beer is only half full! WTF?”

Just a random thought.

More from Brian Shaler

• Fame, Fortune, Thanks, or a Pat on the Back
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• The Six Stages of Debugging
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This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009 at 2:01 pm and is filed under Articles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.