Reflections on exaggeration

We need many filters to stay sane in this life. One of my key filters that I have to use in everyday life is dealing with exaggerations. Many of us exaggerate things for various purposes. Exaggerations could be mild, heavy or extreme. The mild ones are like making something more noticeable than usual. They could be seen as humour mainly to highlight a point and they usually give us good time with pleasure and learning. The heavy ones are sometimes bearable and sometimes go beyond the limit based on our mood or general tolerance level. The extreme ones are not easy to handle; especially the shocking images in journalism, visual media and meaningless broadcasts in recent digital social media. Showing an ant like an elephant is an example of this.

There are various interesting views on exaggeration from different perspectives that shed some lights on the topic. I like description of love by George Bernard Shaw in this context: "Love is a gross exaggeration of the difference between one person and everybody else". According to Kahlil Gibran "An exaggeration is a truth that has lost its temper". Interestingly Voltaire has a more positive approach to is with his definition "Exaggeration, the inseparable companion of greatness".

From behavioural perspective it may turn to habit in some people as observed by Josh Billings who said: "There are some people so addicted to exaggeration that they can't tell the truth without lying". It also reflects other habit patterns as pointed out by William Alger: "False eloquence is exaggeration; true eloquence is emphasis".

What is your tolerance level to exaggeration and how do you cope with it? Hope you can join the debate to answer my question here.

Regards,
Mehmet Yildiz

Does Optimism Boost the Immune System?

It is interesting to read a media release titled "Optimism Boosts the Immune System". The study provides some insights to this long debated topic.

Optimism in my life has some merit however in my profession I have to look at the worst scenarios sometimes which may look or sound pessimistic. Any design requires a holistic view of the topic both from optimistic and so called pessimistic aspects.

It is possible to come across paradoxical views on the optimistic behaviour such as to smile when it hurts most.Is this possible and realistic? Having said that, from hindsight we see blessings in disguise for the things seemed horrible to us when we were experiencing them.

Many comments were made throughout the history on optimistic and pessimistic approach. We all may have heard Churchill's famous assertion "A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.". Is it really so? As I asked in my another post "Do optimists see the opportunity in every difficulty?" Whose choice may it be?

Regards,
Mehmet Yildiz