The Law of Assumption
[Photo by afiler]
When I was young, my mother told me that when you assume, you make an ass out of u and me.
These days, a more popular phrase seems to be assumption is the mother of all fuck ups.
Both are true, of course.
Suppose it’s just you doing the assuming. You’re going to assume right or assume wrong. You’ve got a one-in-two chance of getting it right. Fifty-fifty.
Now add another assumer.
You’re working together on something. You assume, they assume. You both need to get it right, otherwise the legs fall off your project. You both have a one-in-two chance of assuming right, but there’s only a one-in-four chance of both of you assuming right.
Four of us assumed the other day. We had a one-in-sixteen chance. It was 93.75% certain that we would fuck up.
And fuck up we did.