Expectations

While attending a webinar on life in Rotterdam, which will be my home for at least the next year🏡, I noticed what I thought was a wise truth: accepting that there are pros and cons everywhere and enjoying the pros that the Netherlands has to offer is the only way to be satisfied.

Setting expectations that do not exceed too much but that can still feel stimulating is key to not getting literally crazy. In fact, when we say “we are fine here”, it all depends on what we are focusing on and, most importantly, what we compare it to. We can only feel terribly bad if we start thinking about the endless possible ways that events could have been better or we should have acted better. The equilibrium of two opposing forces of perfectionism and delivering results will produce the final output⚖️.

The effects of this straightforward realization can be vast. In fact, just a change of perspective as simple as “all gained vs all to lose” can make a difference in life satisfaction and goal establishment. For example, everything becomes more within reach if we start to think of the most successful sector leaders, like Elon Musk, Bill Gates, and so on, as the least bad instead of the best.

I have also noticed a regular pattern in my everyday life in how expectations move with a new event, product or person depending on time or knowledge gained. I would represent it similar to the curve of the Dunning-Kruger effect (no coincidence, it also has to do with the knowledge process) but with “time” on the X axis and “level of expectations” on the Y axis.

I found that it already existed, and it is called the Gartner Hype Cycle, shown in the chart below.

This curve works pretty much with all we deal in life and is linked to how we learn and discover new things, from new products to unknown people. Making an example with a technological innovation, like 5G, the curve starts by first overestimating the potential, followed by a sense of disenchantment and then stabilizing to a level in the three-quarters of the maximum high, where limits are accepted, and benefits are enjoyed.

Awareness of this human mechanism can provide a lot of reassurance when experiencing a “Trough of Disillusionment” while a bit of healthy scepticism during the “Peak of Inflated Expectations”.

Luca Bisi