How *Sweet* Can a Dog Be?

It doesn’t matter how sweet a dog is, but it sort of does…. You have to take the time to figure out why that is.

If ten people look at a puppy that just tilted its head,

all ten people will tell me how sweet the dog looks. When I ask them to tell my why the dog tilted its head, they’ll probably give me ten different answers:

1. it was confused
2. it doesn’t understand what you just did
3. it heard a sound that distracted it
4. it thought it could get a treat
5. it’s wondering if it’s time to play
6. it wanted to figure out where a noise came from
7. it saw a shadow that moved
8. something you said was unusual
9. it’s hungry
10. it remembered something

The Conclusion

Conclusion: at most only one can be correct, and statistically, all of them are wrong.

What Happens Next?

It gets worse.

All ten people probably, simultaneously, think

1. their answer is the CORRECT one
2. and everyone else agrees with them

when in reality

1. none of them are right (see the conclusion from 1-10, above.)
2. and nobody is in agreement with everyone else

and it even gets worse, still, because

1. everyone calls the dog “sweet”
2. everyone unconsciously thinks they’re agreeing with each other
3. everyone agrees on the outward “sweet” label
4. everyone disagrees on their narratives
5. nobody comes to a group consensus on how it’s a breakdown.

It’s the most basic of communications, and from the start, it’s off to a pretty bad start. Even though it doesn’t matter how sweet a dog is, it sort of does, but only if each person takes the time to go down a rabbit hole that most don’t seem to want to explore. The disagreements remain. The buildup of those disagreements accumulate, and they spring load. Taking the time to examine each of our own assumptions is the thing that addresses everything, but it’s an inside job.

Do the work.