The Difference in Perception … the Story of the Devil in the Details

It ain’t what you don’t know that will hurt you. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.

- Mark Twain

Do the details guide you in distinguishing reality versus perception? Should they?

Let’s define each term to be sure we are on the same page. Perception is how you see things. Reality is how things really are.

An important difference to you? Yes.

Here is a short story to illustrate why:

A heart surgeon took his car to his local garage for a regular service, where he usually exchanged a little friendly banter with the owner, a very skilled but not especially wealthy mechanic.

“So tell me,” says the mechanic, “I’ve been wondering about what we both do for a living, and how much more you get paid than me…”

“Yes?” says the surgeon.

“Well look at this,” says the mechanic, as he worked on a big complicated BMW engine, “I check how it’s running, open it up, fix the valves, and put it all back together so it works well as new. We basically do the same job, don’t we? And yet you are paid ten times what I am — how do you explain that?”