is the glass half empty or half full?

Question

i think the standard resoning is bull, personally... why would it be good to have the glass half full? it could be all the way full, right? but it's not. that makes me sad.
on the other hand, if you say its half empty, it could be all the way empty, no? why fret? it could be worse and it's not! go with it.

what do you say?

this is how i interpret the optimistic v. pessimistic test... me, im optimistic and i say it's half empty. like i said, it could be all the way empty, but tis not, so it could be worse but it's not...

Answer 1

Oh i dunno. I mean, you applied the energy to ask the question even though it's been asked a thousand million times before. So you must be really optimistic that some new truth may be revealed by some additional thought to the matter. On the other hand, you could have actually thought about it and asked a question that was at least a little more original.

Tough one! :-)

Xan Shui,
Philosophic Philanthropist, Honest Man

Answer 2

The answer depends on which direction you are going. Consider that it is a hot day and you want a cold glass of water. You fill the glass and you begin drinking. When you get to the halfway point, is the glass half full? No, it is not half full because you are in the process of emptying it. Hence it is half empty.

In the similar way, suppose that you are interrupted as you are filling a glass with water, leaving half a glass. Is it half empty? No, it's half full because you are in the process of filling it.

Ultimately, you can determine how to answer this riddle by determining the direction of the operator. On the outside chance that you come upon half a glass of liquid and are unaware of anyone doing anything with it, it remains neither half empty nor half full, but merely half a glass of whatever.

Answer 3

what it means is that ppl that say "its half empty" focus too much on the negativity. For example the glass not being full. That can reveal that you are a perfectionist and ambitious and always wanting more and more. That is why being "half full" is not enough.

Now, the glass being "half full" refers to the people that are OK with what they see they try to appreciate what is there. And Not focus too much on the fact that the glass is also "half empty".

THe fact is the glass is half ... you just chose with what side to go with or how to describe it if you say it is "half empty" than you might be taking things for granted because reality is "it is also half full". The same goes with you saying the glass if "half full" Reality is half of it is empty. Overall, what it really reveals about you is your way of thinking whether it is positive (half full) or negative (half empty).

which one do you slant more towards too? trying to see the good or the bad..

I should be best answer!.

Answer 4

Do you even know where this question came from?
It's a psychological trick.If you want to know if somebody is an optimist or pessimist-you put a glass half full in front of that person.If he says it's half empty-it means that person is a pessimist,other vise-it's an optimist.

Answer 5

I agree with you. Saying that a glass is half empty is optimistic. You could have said it's not full but you chose to say it's half empty. If you said it's half full, it's like you are not content and in a negative mood because it is not full; be thankful it's not empty.

Answer 6

It's been said that it's all a matter of perspective. To a mouse caught in the glass it makes no difference either way. To someone who thirsts, it only matters that the glass contains something. While the pessimist and the optimist hash it out, I think I'll just water the plant.

Answer 7

I've always just thought of it as pessimistic against optimistic, I personally think of the glass as half full. It all depends on the person, do you often look on the Bright side of situations?

Answer 8

Well it's a great question, but really, let's think about it. Assuming that you are actually drinking the milk, it can't be either - and if it was half full, and it was staying that way, I would think of it more as an old undesireable glass of milk more then anything else. I look at it like this, something to dip my cookies in.

Answer 9

It depends on the persons out look on life. The half full people are supposed to see the good in everything and the half empty look for the bad in everything.

Answer 10

actually, i kinda got a little high last night and knocked the proverbial glass over, so it is now officially 100% empty. Sorry guys, but this question is henceforth null, void and moot. It's empty. End of story. I'll clean it up later.