How to Expect the Unexpected: The Science of Making Predictions and the Art of Knowing When Not To

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Don’t get me wrong: planning is a good thing. It’s beneficial to be organized and to have certain things planned out. For example, it’s helpful to make plans such as reservations and sending invitations for your child’s birthday party. However, when we set expectations of how that party should turn out and who should show up, we set ourselves up for disappointment. We are not doing ourselves any favors when we cling to those unmet expectations. A Heavy Burden If one does not expect the unexpected, one will not find it out, since it is not to be searched out, and difficult to compass. ~ Heraclitus. has been a year where many expectations have shattered. We’ve all been forced to roll with the ebb and flow of the ever-changing tides and expect the unexpected. We can choose to cling to our expectations of how life should look or let go and learn to live with anticipation. God has been actively working on my heart in this area this year and, chances are, you are feeling Him tug your heartstrings too. He wants you to give your unmet expectations to Him and trust Him with every nuance of your life — both big and small. He is inviting you to take the journey through life with Him. Remember David’s prayer as you start each day: “In the morning, Lord, you hear my voice. In the morning I lay my requests before you and wait expectantly” ( Psalm 5:3, NIV).

The ocean is a supreme metaphor for change. I expect the unexpected but am never fully prepared. ~ Tim Winton. Yes, "expect the unexpected" is a type of proverb. It teaches a lesson about life: that it's unpredictable, and one must always be ready for surprises. Wouldn’t you know, my friend was there waiting for me under the aspens. My unmet expectations turned into one of the most encouraging and refreshing afternoons that I have ever experienced — and was far better than anything I ever expected. Expectation vs. RealityAlways expect the unexpected. Right around Thanksgiving, when the new Alex Cross will be out. It’s called Four Blind Mice and it’s a pretty amazing story about several murders inside the military. ~ James Patterson. Powerful Expect the Unexpected Quotes Two slightly different interpretations of this fragment are possible, depending on whether one understands ἔλπηται to mean ‘expect’ or ‘are hoping for’ (both are in theory possible). […] Heraclitus’ point seems to be the straightforward one that life after death is different from what people expect and imagine; further discussion of the matter, as so often, he tantalizingly avoids. One inference can, however, fairly be drawn from this and other fragments: his conviction of the misleading nature, if not downright falsity, of the detailed accounts of the afterlife prevalent in contemporary Orphism. Yes, the idea behind "expect the unexpected" is universal. Life's unpredictability and our need to adapt to sudden changes are experiences shared across cultures and languages. Final Thoughts About "Expect the Unexpected"

Don’t be deceived into this short-sighted thinking. Remember Jesus’s promise: “Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full” (John 16:24). If the path to full joy is sometimes hard, and Jesus tells us it is (John 16:33; Matthew 7:14), that is no reason not to take it! What do you want? Low, shallow, thin joys? No! Go for full joy! And remember what the writer of Hebrews tells us:

For just as long, we have been getting it wrong. From religious oracles to weather forecasters, and from politicians to economists, we are subjected to poor predictions all the time. Our job is to separate the good from the bad. Unfortunately, the foibles of our own biology – the biases that ultimately make us human – can let us down when it comes to making rational inferences about the world around us. And that can have disastrous consequences. Related: Take a Deep Breath Quotes and Sayings to Inspire You and Unexpected Love Quotes and Sayings for Your Sweetheart Thoughtful Expect the Unexpected Quotes

Test the waters. Conduct short, focused experiments to see how various parties will react to the change. For example, a team at another company was developing a new sales forecasting process, and started to apply elements of the new approach to one product in one region early on. This living laboratory for the new process gave them a real-time window into the reactions of their sales people, the lead time needed by supply chain, and the information formats that were easiest to use. This information allowed the project managers to modify their plans before rolling it out to the whole company.If you think that the occasional furry visitor is no big deal, remember that a rat population can explode from a pair of innocent young lovers to an extended family of a thousand in just 12 months. This is just one of many reasons that home emergency insurance policies exist. Is it an emergency? If we ask God for greater wisdom and discernment, what should we expect to receive? A steady stream of mind-bending, confusing answers that are difficult to understand and work through, because our powers of discernment are trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil (Hebrews 5:14). Expect the unexpected, is what I’d say about Taboo. It’s different. I don’t think you’ve seen anything like it. It’s getting incredible responses, so fingers crossed. ~ Steven Knight. On the heels of the recent natural disasters, the city learns how to expect the unexpected during emergencies.

Yes, "expect the unexpected" can be very useful in business planning. It reminds businesses to be ready for unexpected market shifts, customer behavior changes, or unforeseen costs. In the grand scheme of things, my morning wasn’t awful. The weather was perfect. The sky was clear and blue, and I felt strong enough to conquer the seven-mile hike I had planned through the national monument. Everything was meeting my expectations. Well, almost everything. The premise is that humans are, by nature, not very good at prediction, but can be better (at least sometimes). We have evolved an ad-hoc collection of heuristics that have served us perfectly well up to now, thank-you-very-much — like the linearity bias of thinking things will continue much as they are, the normalcy bias of thinking it’s not worth moving camp just because Ug saw what might have been a tiger in the undergrowth, and the Baader-Meinhof tendency of paying attention to new things. Unless you expect the unexpected you will never find it, for it is hard to discover and hard to attain. ~ Heraclitus.

Ingram Bywater (1889). The Fragments of the Work of Heraclitus of Ephesus on Nature, p. 86. Baltimore: N. Murray. Expect the unexpected, my mother once said. Because the unexpected most certainly will be expecting you. ~ Marjorie M. Liu. To make the phrase "expect the unexpected" easier to understand, let's see it used in various contexts: