Jump to content

Coffee Cup Analogy


unorclan

Recommended Posts

I found this on the internet; I suggest you read it and remember it, for I will.

 

A group of alumni, highly established in their careers, got together to visit their old university lecturer. Conversation soon turned into complaints about stress in work and life.

 

Offering his guests coffee, the lecturer went to the kitchen and returned with a large pot of coffee and an assortment of cups: porcelain, plastic, glass, some plain-looking and some expensive and exquisite, telling them to help themselves to hot coffee.

 

When all the students had a cup of coffee in hand, the lecturer said: If you noticed, all the nice-looking, expensive cups were taken up, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress. What all of you really wanted was coffee, not the cup, but you consciously went for the better cups and are eyeing each others cups.

 

Now, if Life is coffee, then the jobs, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain Life, but the quality of Life doesnt change. Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee in it.

 

So please, dont let the cups drive youenjoy the coffee instead.

 

Being happy does not mean everything is perfect. It means you have decided to see beyond the imperfection.

unorclanpixelsigzu1.png

Thanks to the amazing talent of Jopie211 for the sig!

Finest Fist of Guthix Strategy Guide

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 56
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

I've always liked this story. I think I've read it before on StumbleUpon.

 

It has its element of truth. I'd rather say though coffee isn't life, it's a happy life, because even though you might have a gold cup, the coffee can still taste horrible.

kaisershami.png

He who wears his morality but as his best garment were better naked... Your daily life is your temple and your religion
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I agree with that completely.

 

I always cry about not having things and when I finally get them I barely feel any different. That's human beings for you though. Want want want.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

But just remember, some of the crappier cups will soak through and drop all the contents through the bottom. Interpret that as you will.

whalenuke.png

Command the Murderous Chalices! Drink ye harpooners! drink and swear, ye men that man the deathful whaleboat's bow- Death to Moby Dick!

BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD! SKULLS FOR THE SKULL THRONE!

angel2w.gif

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It has been tested and shown that if a person is told a specific brand of wine is more expensive, it will taste better.

Perhaps the richness of a cup may reflect upon the richness of it's contents?

 

Anyway.

But I don't want to go among mad people!

Oh, you can't help that. We're all mad here..."

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It has been tested and shown that if a person is told a specific brand of wine is more expensive, it will taste better.

 

 

 

That reminds me of the placebo effect (tell someone whatever they're taking heals whatever bothers them, and they'll actually think they're healed.) I wonder if they're related, and why it happens from an evolutionary point of view.

 

Anyway, it's a nice little thing to read, inspiring in a way, but if you think about it too much, you start to realize the flaws in the analogy. Even though Lenin's remark was kinda cynical, he did have a point, if the cup is bad it might pour away the content.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It has been tested and shown that if a person is told a specific brand of wine is more expensive, it will taste better.

 

 

 

That reminds me of the placebo effect (tell someone whatever they're taking heals whatever bothers them, and they'll actually think they're healed.) I wonder if they're related, and why it happens from an evolutionary point of view.

 

Anyway, it's a nice little thing to read, inspiring in a way, but if you think about it too much, you start to realize the flaws in the analogy. Even though Lenin's remark was kinda cynical, he did have a point, if the cup is bad it might pour away the content.

I don't think the professor would've brought out crappy little used and crushed Dixie cups. Besides, brand new styrofoam cups hold coffee just as well as coffee mugs.

lighviolet1lk4.jpg
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I agree with that completely.

 

I always cry about not having things and when I finally get them I barely feel any different. That's human beings for you though. Want want want.

Could not agree with you more Zierro. Awesome story, I will remember that.

35bvvh1.png

[hide=Quotes]

Albel/Justin

Albel doesn't say anything anymore, just comes in, leaves an arrow and vanishes into the night :(Probably
practising some euphonium

You nearly had me fooled, you fooler you

Euphonium/10.

9/10. To me, always associate Albel with musical stuff in OT.

Everyone with a goatee and glasses is Albel now.

lmfao albel m8 wat r u doin, hi though.

 

[/hide]

[hide=Runescape Achievements]99 firemaking(2007), 99 woodcutting(2008), 99 fletching(2009), 99 magic(2010), 99 cooking(2010), 99 farming(2011), 99 construction(2011), 99 runecrafting(2012), 99 Hunter (2014),  99 ranged (2015), 99 HP (2015), 99 Slayer (2015), 99 attack (2015) 99 Defense (2015) 99 Prayer (2015) 99 Summoning (2015) 99 Strength(2015) 99 Herblore (2015) 99 Dungeoneering (2017)  99 Mining (2017) 99 Crafting (2017) 99 Smithing (2017) 99 Thieving (2017)  99 invention (2017) 99 Fishing (2018), 99 Divination (2018), 99 Agility (2018), MAXED (05/17/2018)[/hide]

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It has been tested and shown that if a person is told a specific brand of wine is more expensive, it will taste better.

Perhaps the richness of a cup may reflect upon the richness of it's contents?

 

Anyway.

That's basically placebo affect. Expensive wine costs more because theyre higher quality, aged better, and straight taste better. Theyre not like a Hollister shirt- the cost reflects the quality. So if one thinks the wine costs a lot, they'll think it tastes better, simple.

 

Cups don't matta. This story makes me sick though, like a greeting card.

[if you have ever attempted Alchemy by clapping your hands or

by drawing an array, copy and paste this into your signature.]

 

Fullmetal Alchemist, you will be missed. A great ending to a great series.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Cups don't matta. This story makes me sick though, like a greeting card.

 

Absolutely agreed. It was like a box of chocolate being forced through my pupils.

La lune ne garde aucune rancune.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

But just remember, some of the crappier cups will soak through and drop all the contents through the bottom. Interpret that as you will.

Too true. I'd love to see you TIF'ers live with a lot less than you already have.

"The cry of the poor is not always just, but if you never hear it you'll never know what justice is."

siggy3s.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The point of the analogy is to learn to stop caring.

So you will see us deprived of our current standard of living--

and if we listen to this story we will be fine, psychologically. If we don't, we will struggle and complain.

 

Though, I see living standards more as sugars and creams added to my coffee. If we see living standards as the cups, and the coffee as 'life-force', this analogy would turn us into [developmentally delayed]edly content zombies eking out an existence on the minimum substance required.

 

I'd rather add sugar to my cup before it gets sickly sweet, at which point I'd lend taste and flavor to the cups all around me.

But I don't want to go among mad people!

Oh, you can't help that. We're all mad here..."

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The point of the analogy is to learn to stop caring.

So you will see us deprived of our current standard of living--

and if we listen to this story we will be fine, psychologically. If we don't, we will struggle and complain.

 

Though, I see living standards more as sugars and creams added to my coffee. If we see living standards as the cups, and the coffee as 'life-force', this analogy would turn us into [developmentally delayed]edly content zombies eking out an existence on the minimum substance required.

 

I'd rather add sugar to my cup before it gets sickly sweet, at which point I'd lend taste and flavor to the cups all around me.

 

 

Are you saying that all people who enjoy living lives that are comfortless drink black coffee? Because that is quite an assumption to make.

The only difference between Hitler and the man next door who comes home and beats his kids every day is circumstance. The intent is the same-- to harm others.

[hide=Tifers say the darndest things]

I told her there was a secret method to doing it - and there is - but my once nimble and agile fingers were unable to perform because I was under the influence.

I would laugh, not hate. I'm a male. :(

Since when was Ireland an island...? :wall:

I actually have a hobby of licking public toilet seats.

[/hide]
Link to comment
Share on other sites

My grandma sent this email relating to the top of not caring:

The Pastor's [wagon]

 

 

The Pastor entered his donkey in a race and it won. The Pastor was so pleased with the donkey that he entered it in the race again and it won again.

 

The local paper read:

 

PASTOR'S [wagon] OUT FRONT.

 

The Bishop was so upset with this kind of publicity that he ordered the Pastor not to enter the donkey in another race.

 

The next day the local paper headline read: BISHOP SCRATCHES PASTOR'S [wagon].

 

This was too much for the Bishop so he ordered the Pastor to get rid of the donkey. The Pastor decided to give it to a Nun in a nearby convent.

 

The local paper, hearing of the news, posted the following headline the next day:

 

NUN HAS BEST [wagon] IN TOWN.

 

The Bishop fainted. He informed the Nun that she would have to get rid of the donkey so she sold it to a farmer for $10.

 

The next day the paper read: NUN SELLS [wagon] FOR $10.

 

This was too much for the Bishop so he ordered the Nun to buy back the donkey and lead it to the plains where it could run wild.

 

The next day the headlines read:

 

NUN ANNOUNCES HER [wagon] IS WILD AND FREE.

 

The Bishop was buried the next day.

 

Curse censorship! lol

kaisershami.png

He who wears his morality but as his best garment were better naked... Your daily life is your temple and your religion
Link to comment
Share on other sites

^And to think that my grandma doesn't even have a computer...

 

Anyways, would that mean that people buying coffee from Starbucks or Tim Hortons (for all you Canadians out there) means that they are the type of people that want to do the job quickly?

 

If you think about it, the cup/method they buy the coffee is a method to find out a person's personality...

22031_s.gif

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Are you saying that all people who enjoy living lives that are comfortless drink black coffee? Because that is quite an assumption to make.

Are you... trying to make a funny?

[if you have ever attempted Alchemy by clapping your hands or

by drawing an array, copy and paste this into your signature.]

 

Fullmetal Alchemist, you will be missed. A great ending to a great series.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I always remember a quote from this old dude I used to meet with at my Sikh Temple. He said that back in the good ol' days, as is customary of old people to brag about supposed days of goodness, we had poor beds, bad food, and hard lives with a lot of work, but were happy because everyone else around us lived the same way.

 

Also reminds me of a quote from Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell. He quoted a study done where people received cash awards for performing well in a study and were hooked up to a live MRI to measure brain activity. When they were given more cash, they became happier, as registered by the machine. But when they were shown that the other people in the study got more than they did, their happiness levels (those things decreased in concentration... endo something... no school for 2 weeks...) suddenly dropped, even though they themselves were getting more.

 

Just shows you how jealous we all really are, even when we're not conscious of it.

guido_49.png
Link to comment
Share on other sites

The idea is that we want a good life (coffee) and think that through meaningless things (fancy cups) life (coffee) will be better.

We desire good coffee, and yet consider the cup more than we consider what we originally wanted (the coffee).

 

Of course, this analogy isn't to be over analyzed, it's just to be taken as it's meant to be taken.

unorclanpixelsigzu1.png

Thanks to the amazing talent of Jopie211 for the sig!

Finest Fist of Guthix Strategy Guide

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use.