This could easily be a post about ‘testing’. It isn’t.
It’s about expectations. Or even about how much we tend to take for granted.
Like traffic stopping at a red light.
Here’s a little story.
Many evenings, my daughter and I go out for a long walk. We chat about different things. Maybe she learns a bit from me. I know I learn a LOT from her. But that’s another discussion.
In the course of our rambles, we reach a busy intersection. There’s a traffic light, with a signal for pedestrians - you know, the stick-man in a stride, flashing green - indicating when it’s safe for you to walk across the road.
Except it isn’t.
At least not where I live! Indeed, it’s often safer to cross when the light is RED.
And as I was explaining this to my little girl the first time we crossed ‘Indian-style’, it struck me how weird this must seem… but only because we expect certain things to happen - and then take them for granted.
Vehicles SHOULD stop at traffic lights. But if you’re driving a car in India and speeding up to beat the changing signal, you dare not slow down if it changes red… because your risk of being rammed from behind by the car following you is GREATER than the chance of being hit by another from in front!
When you pay $100 to have a course packed and shipped to a customer through USPS, it SHOULD be delivered. But on at least 5 occasions in the last 2 months, my packages vanished into thin air - and no one can explain why!
If someone accepts your outsourcing contract to get a project done and delivered on a deadline, it SHOULD get finished. Yet time after time, I struggled with this process failing - and even abandoned 2 potentially profitable ideas - until deciding it was easier and cheaper to do it myself!
Even banking isn’t failsafe. I’ve had a high value check deposited into the wrong account - and only vigilant follow-up revealed the fact in time to fix the mess-up!
Maybe that’s why I no longer fret and fume at a speeding car swerving to miss us as we scoot across the street - when the light is green.
I’ve accepted the reality that some things that SHOULD happen often WILL NOT.
Not doing so would cause endless frustration and angst.
How about you? Are you ‘philosophical’ when things go wrong? Or do you ‘get your panties in a bunch’? (gosh, I loved that expression the first time I heard it - coz of the evoked imagery! - and grabbed this chance to use it!) 
By the way, have you read “How To Cross The Road” yet?
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3 comments ↓
Another approach: everything DOES work… just not always the way it’s intended.
That “safe walking” sign in your example may not function the way it was intended (i.e., to alert people it’s safe to walk), due to the unintended actions of others. However, if you adjust YOUR expectations, the sign works quite well — as a warning, not a beacon.
You EXPECTED your package to get there on time because you paid for it to do so… but what you’ve really learned is to train yourself to get things done earlier so you can avoid using USPS altogether.
You EXPECT your bank to function properly, but now you’ve learned to view your bank as a conquerable challenge, rather than an ally.
Annoying? Yes, in all cases. But since personal responsibility seems to be an old memory these days, we can still use old expectations to get by — we just have to flip them.
True… the first bit of the headline was meant to be a paradox. If you believe everything SHOULD work (the way you want it to), a lot that happens seems frustrating. Flip it and you find the calm within the storm.
Which reminds me of the pithy aphorism - Insanity is doing the same thing but expecting a different outcome.
Dr.Mani
[…] Dr. Mani says “Everything Should Work - But Does It?” […]
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