Why are you always cheerful?

Why are you always cheerful? My expectations were reduced to zero when I was 21. Everything since then has been a bonus. Expecting things to be bad is the best way to be pleasantly surprised when they’re not.

— from The Instruments (Awareness/Perception/Expectations)

In the book

Lower the demand — not into hopelessness, but into clear sight — and most of the sting simply never lands. A great physicist, told at twenty-one that he had only a short time to live, said that ever after he was relentlessly cheerful, because his expectations had been reduced to zero and so everything that came was a bonus. You need not go to zero. — The Instruments (Awareness/Perception/Expectations)

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