Words are Misleading

The intent behind the words is what matters

A variety of intent can result in exactly the same formation of words. What matters the most is whether we understand the person enough to get the intent behind those words. If the understanding is not there then there is a high probability that the words may give a different meaning.

Various paths

It is said that to achieve enlightenment there are various paths that a person can take. Similarly to arrive at the same words there can be a variety of intents. Contrary to all paths being equally good in achieving enlightenment, the various intents that lead to the formation of the same words in a sentence need not be good. One intent can be positive while the other negative and both result in the same sentence.

Example: Valentin and Sara are in love but Valentin is quite insecure in the relationship. Once Sara wrote to Valentin — “I am going out for lunch”. Valentin being insecure wrote, “With whom are you going?”

Casey and John are also in a relationship but here John is not at all insecure. Casey made the exact same statement — “I am going out for lunch” and John responded with exactly the same statement, “With whom are you going?”.

If we analyze the above two statements then we realize that the statements are the same but the intent is different leading to different interpretations. Valentin made the statement just to ensure she is not going out with another man while John made the statement so that he knows whom to contact if something bad happens. John also just had curiosity without any jealousy in asking the question.

Thus, we see that if we do not have an understanding of the people writing a sentence then it is very much possible for us to misinterpret the words. Casey could easily misinterpret John’s statement by considering him to be controlling and jealous.

Permutation of words

The combination of words does sometimes tell a difference between a positive post versus a negative post. But to judge a positive from the negative one still need to have a deeper understanding of the person writing the post. If one understands the person deeply then there is a high probability that one might be able to decipher the true intent behind the different permutations of the words. Sometimes apart from having an understanding of the person it is also important to understand the situation. Sometimes different situations lead to different permutations of words and all have different meanings.

Example: Take the example of Casey and John where John is not at all insecure in the relationship. The relationship was going through some tough times and John made the statement “You are the only one in my life”. Casey immediately inferred that things are not good and that there might be another person in John’s life.

Their relationship recovered from the rough phase and then one day John made the statement — “In my life, you are the only one”. Here based on the situation and an understanding of John Casey had a sigh of relief and correctly inferred that John is with her.

Analogy to software

The end result of the software development process is to come up with a UI that functions based on the requirement. One can create exactly the same UI with the same functionality using either a very good set of design patterns or a completely ad-hoc manner of coding. The use of good design principles and coding standards corresponds to the good intent behind arriving at the exact same result while using an ad-hoc manner of coding corresponds to the use of negative intent. Just looking at the software would not give any clue to the person. One needs to have a deeper understanding of the people writing the code.

Conclusion

Various intents result in the formation of exact same sentence hence it is imperative to have a deeper understanding of the person writing the statement to get the true meaning. Even if someone has a good understanding of the person still sometimes situations make a difference in intent. If one is not aware of the situation that the other person is going through then the statement can be easily misinterpreted. Apart from exact same statement — sometimes the different permutations of the words in making the same statement logically can have different intents. In such cases, it depends on whether the person has a good understanding of the person and the situation to arrive at the correct interpretation. Overall I believe words are misleading and one should always focus on understanding the person so as to arrive at the true intent behind the statement.