Stop Making Assumptions

We all make assumptions. It’s how the brain works—always scanning, sorting, assigning meaning. It’s automatic. We assume the car in front of us is being driven by an idiot. We assume someone’s tone over text means they’re mad. We assume silence means rejection. We assume attention means love. We even make assumptions about strangers on the internet. Assumptions about me, based on this post. (You’re doing it now.) We assume, we assume, we assume. And it’s also how we f*ck it up.

But the issue isn’t just about being wrong. The real problem is what we do with the assumption—how we use it to fill in the blanks, to create stories, to paint entire character portraits of the people in our lives. We don’t just make assumptions—we make conclusions. And most of them are rooted not in objective truth, but in our own unresolved shit that we project onto others.