Long Haired Lover

Recalling that:

α = contentment

δ = what you receive

ἐ = what you expect

The contentment ratio is defined as:

With a limiting value of one, even if what you receive exceeds your expectations. This because you quickly adjust your expectations.

Now that’s all and good for things such as driving in traffic, icecream, art galleries, and other bad others, but what about people that you know and love?

Well, unfortunately, in this case what you expect and what you receive are non-linearly dependent upon each other.

Which is just a complicated way of saying that if you lower your expectations of someone then they will just lower what they deliver.

Or if you avoid a person in order to dodge a low contentment ratio interaction, then they’ll bring it back to you like a particularly annoying long haired retriever.

With respect to people known to you, contentment only comes in three forms; zero expectations, trailer park or something along the lines of…

a formula that oscillates between sucking it up and reveling in the madness.