Of course we make assumptions about others

It’s easy to say that we should never assume anything about anyone, and I agree in theory, but it’s not really possible. While we can limit our assumptions to a degree, we’ll never escape them entirely — and maybe we shouldn’t.

In her book “ I Never Thought of It That Way “, author Monica Guzman shares this thought on assumptions:

“We can’t not make assumptions about people. Assumptions are how we navigate a complicated world where we don’t know and can’t know everything about everyone. All we can do is notice the assumptions we’re making and ask why.”

Back in the 90’s I worked at a video game store (which I mentioned briefly here), and it was a fantastic job. However, I had one manager there that was kind of a jerk, and at some point he gave me the cheesy line “ if you assume something, you only make an ass out of u and me”. I thought he was wrong then, and I still do now.

• If someone was standing and looking through the games for the Super Nintendo, I assumed they were interested in them.
• If someone asked when “Warcraft 2” was coming out, I assumed they were a fan of the first one.

I could have been wrong in either case, but there’s a 95% chance I was right. Plus, the stakes were low and being “wrong” there wasn’t a big deal. The assumptions were beneficial.

Stakes

I think the stakes are the key here. If I assume someone was interested in Super Nintendo…