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Source: Changes in Perception

I

“THE GLASS IS HALF FULL”

In mathematics there is no difference between “The glass is half full”
and “The glass is half empty.” But the meaning of these two state-
ments is totally different, and so are their consequences. If general
perception changes from seeing the glass as “half full” to seeing it as
“half empty,” there are major innovative opportunities.
Here are a few examples of such changes in perception and of the
innovative opportunities they opened up—in business, in politics, in
education, and elsewhere.
1. All factual evidence shows that the last twenty years, the years
since the early 1960s, have been years of unprecedented advance and
improvement in the health of Americans. Whether we look at mortal-
ity rates for newborn babies or survival rates for the very old, at occur-
rence of cancers (other than lung cancer) or cure rates for cancer, and
so on, all indicators of physical health and functioning have been mov-
ing upward at a good clip. And yet the nation is gripped by collective
hypochondria. Never before has there been so much concern with
health, and so much fear. Suddenly everything seems to cause cancer
or degenerative heart disease or premature loss of memory. The glass
is clearly “half empty.” What we see now are not the great improve-
ments in health and functioning, but that we are as far away from
immortality as ever before and have made no progress toward it. In
fact, it can be argued that if there is any real deterioration in American
health during the last twenty years it lies precisely in the extreme con-
cern with health and fitness, and the obsession with getting old, with
losing fitness, with degenerating into long-term illness or senility.
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