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Fnord
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28 Apr 2013, 8:49 pm

There is no glass.

There is no water.

There is only cake.



League_Girl
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28 Apr 2013, 8:57 pm

I have never heard anyone use this phrase. Must be a regional or a cultural thing. Do we have this idiom in the states?


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Taybot97
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28 Apr 2013, 9:06 pm

It's all relitive. I the glass filling up or becoming empty. If it's filling up its halfway to full, or half full. If the glass I emptying then its halfway empty, or half empty. Not sure how this applies to people but it makes sense to me



AgentPalpatine
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28 Apr 2013, 10:07 pm

Fnord wrote:
There is no glass.

There is no water.

There is only cake.


There is only ice cream.


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Scia
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28 Apr 2013, 10:25 pm

Depends on the context. For example, I think I use 'half-empty' if I feel I need more than half for some reason. I also tend to use 'half-full' if a glass is being filled up. I think it's also possible to use 'empty' as a positive if 'empty' is what you want for a particular situation.

Fnord wrote:
There is no glass.

There is no water.

There is only cake.


*Scia likes this.* :D



Fnord
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28 Apr 2013, 10:35 pm

League_Girl wrote:
I have never heard anyone use this phrase. Must be a regional or a cultural thing. Do we have this idiom in the states?

Yes.

"A pessimist will see the glass as half empty. An optimist will see the glass as half full." -- attributed to Oscar Wilde

Corollaries:

"A physicist will see the glass and say that it is completely full - half with water, the other half with air."

"An engineer will see the glass as being optimized for maximum surge capacity."

"A Zen Master will see the glass, pick it up, and drink from it."

"A Republican will see the glass and say, 'Who's been drinking my water?'"

"A Democrat will deny ever having taken a drink from that glass."

"A realist will say that it doesn't matter, since it is going to be washed later anyway."

"A surrealist sees a giraffe eating a necktie."



Tim_Tex
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26 Jul 2019, 9:48 am

Image


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TheOther
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26 Jul 2019, 10:02 am

It is kind of a dumb idiom, but it is not really a technical question of what constitutes fullness or emptiness. Here is the gist of it.

Say there are 6 oz of water in a 12 oz glass.

If you focus on the 6 oz of water that is present, the idea is that you focus on what you do have, appreciate it, and see the overall situation as good: I have 6 oz of water that I did not before. This is good.

If you focus on the 6 oz of unmet capacity for additional water, the idea is that you focus on what you are missing, don't appreciate what you have already, and view the situation as overall bad: I could have 6 more oz of water. That is basically missing half of what I could have. Everything is terrible.

It's about what you focus on as an individual, not the objective truth about the contents of the glass.

A similar thought is found in one of my favorite Immortal Technique songs, "amputees feelin' unlucky until they see the vegetables". Do you focus on the missing limb, or do you cherish the mental capacity you still have?



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26 Jul 2019, 11:16 am



JustFoundHere
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26 Jul 2019, 12:48 pm

The glass is half-full of lemonade - that is the lemonade we make when life gives us lemons!