Half Empty? No Such Thing!
Is the glass half empty, or half full?
I have heard that question posed many times, and never been happy with the standard answer. I've always believed there is no such thing as half empty. A 10 ounce glass with 5 oz in it is half full. (Half of zero is still zero -- assuming your calculation does not consider it an error).
You can say, correctly I might add, that with 5 oz in it, when it formerly had 10 oz, it has been half-emptied.
But this is essentially a grammar, not philosophical problem.
The answer depends upon whether you are asking for the current volume, or the recent trend.
Thursday, May 22, 2008 | 06:01 PM | Permalink
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well(,) half full... but half emptying
Posted by: frenchman | May 22, 2008 6:12:33 PM
Half-empty is how you should describe your glass when you want it topped up.
If you were to say that it was half emptied, your host would assume that your goal was to empty the glass, and so would not offer more beverage.
Posted by: ottnott | May 22, 2008 6:12:54 PM
My favorite reply to the question is "neither - the glass is twice as big as it need be"
Posted by: Wayne | May 22, 2008 6:17:48 PM
the kind of people who always ask whether you see the world as "half-full or half-empty" are themselves entirely full of it
Posted by: scorpio | May 22, 2008 6:17:49 PM
I came up with this response myself, but I have no idea if it has been said somewhere else before, redundant invention if so.
Q: Is the glass half empty, or half full?
A: The volume of the glass is one half actualized.
Posted by: JJL | May 22, 2008 6:18:09 PM
Nope. This new 'trend' variable is bollocks, like a Moody's computing model.
If the bottle is at 90% capacity you say it is almost full.
If it is at 10% capacity you say it is almost empty.
If it is at 50% you can say either half empty or half full.
Posted by: mhm | May 22, 2008 6:21:24 PM
You are considering the wrong problem. It is not the amount of water once there, or the amount of water now there that is of concern - the problem is the glass cannot change its shape to fit the everchanging amounts of water.
Therefore, the correct answer is D: change glasses.
Posted by: Winston Munn | May 22, 2008 6:26:35 PM
(Half of zero is still zero -- assuming your calculation does not consider it an error).
But the question is not if the glass is "Half of Empty" (Half * Empty) but if the glass is Half Empty".
Man, I should totally be working right now, but this was too important to pass up.
Posted by: Joe | May 22, 2008 6:33:32 PM
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Posted by: American Entrepreneur Seminar | May 22, 2008 6:44:20 PM
The glass is half-full of liquid and half-full of air.
Posted by: Isaac | May 22, 2008 6:46:36 PM
I have to disagree with the equivalence of empty and zero and half of that to be zero.
A better analogy would be between empty and amount of remaining capacity.
A 1 liter volume half filled has 500 ml of fluid in it and 500 ml of additional space to add more fluid. In that case, it's remaining capacity to hold more liquid is one half of its capacity to hold liquid when there is no liquid present in the container.
Posted by: Markus | May 22, 2008 7:01:15 PM
The optimist says the glass is half full. The pessimist says the glass is half empty. I usually say, "Hey, if you're not gonna drink that, pass it over here."
Posted by: Goodliffe | May 22, 2008 7:25:23 PM
Agree with Scorpio. People that pose this question do not normally know any facts and simply try to insinuate that you are a pessimist, i.e. ignorant.
Posted by: larster | May 22, 2008 7:28:18 PM
half empty = half of the total volume of the glass is empty = half of the total volume of the glass is full = half full
Posted by: dis | May 22, 2008 7:30:02 PM
"Do not try and see the glass as half empty or half full, instead try only to see the truth.
And what's that?
There is no glass."
Loose "The Matrix" analogy!
Posted by: JJL | May 22, 2008 7:31:04 PM
"The kind of people who always ask whether you see the world as "half-full or half-empty" are themselves entirely full of it."
There are two kinds of people in this world: those that divide people into two groups, and those that don't...
Posted by: Pool Shark | May 22, 2008 7:51:53 PM
The correct answer to that question is simply "who forgot to fill the damn glass?"
Posted by: tim | May 22, 2008 7:52:20 PM
Good article from Marketwatch, not unfamiliar to the Big Picture readers
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/governments-numbers-racket-about-blow/story.aspx?guid=%7BF91A0843%2D69B4%2D4C0C%2D92CE%2DB835D9907945%7D&dist=MostReadHome
Posted by: Aristotle | May 22, 2008 8:20:41 PM
You are all loony from spending too much time reading the econ blogs (Big Picture being one of my favorite).
Drink the remaining water in the glass or breath the air of it. However much you see of what you desire as remaining in the glass, the glass will then be fully empty of it. After a time, when you are again thirsty or breathless, only then will you be able to judge the former contents of the glass.
I suspect you will then find it was half empty.
Posted by: Tom S J | May 22, 2008 8:40:23 PM
1/2 full when invested in oil stocks
1/2 empty when not invested and paying $4/gal at the gas station
empty when winter comes and in order to stay warm, you spend whatever is left after food, on your heating bills.
Posted by: rickrude | May 22, 2008 9:43:25 PM
I ponder this with a good ole' screwdriver... One-quarter of the glass filled with vodka... One quarter with o.j... hmmm... tastes... GOOD! More vodka... More o.j... mmmm... More vodka! More o.j.! think... ponder... more vodka! not so much o.j. this time... huh? what was the question?! 42! more vodka! MORE VODKA! MORE VODKA! Noozie! I have been drinking so much VODKA that I am Russian now! Am I still writing.. neh... commenting?! Gawd I hope I am doing this on my porn blog so I don't look like an idiot... MORE VODKA! MORE MORE MORE VODKA! Oh how I love Russian girls... 42! When November comes I will go vote drunk like this... vote for PUTIN! MORE VODKA! Where's the porn on this site? Finance books wtf? George CLason the richest man in babylon he should have gotten laid more then he would have been RICH AND HAPPY. MORE VODKA! oh dear i feel like a piss-drunk garden gnome... there was a question here... MORE VODKA! what was it? oh yea... the glass... half-o.j. OR IS IT half-vodka... well says Lev Davidovich Landau long dead (he should have drunken more VODKA he would still be alive) it is BOTH at the same time until it is observed but you can only OBSERVE that truth about superposition when you are really really drunk... MORE VODKA!
Posted by: Sherman McCoy | May 22, 2008 10:31:08 PM
Take half an aspirin and try to get more sleep.
Posted by: John F. | May 22, 2008 10:42:00 PM
Always 1/2 Full if you are a Equity long-only manager
1/2 Empty If you are a Bond long-only fund manager
Doesn't matter, weather it is empty or full or overflowing or partially filled/empty, if you are a commodity investor?!
If it is empty means -- fed will cut and it is good for them; if it is fuller means peak oil and the fundamental macro picture will further support case of dwindling supplies and growing demand!
Posted by: Nihilism | May 22, 2008 11:31:50 PM
Half empty or half full is not in my inventory of phrases Often is and Off-Ten isn't
My mother told me that off-ten is poor english and she was a task master - I believed my mother! The Dictionary says that both are OK
Who Says?
Posted by: la grande poussée | May 22, 2008 11:41:23 PM
I recall Michael Moore, host of the public radio program "What Do You Know?" saying
"Whether the glass is half full or half empty, it's still just half a glass."
Posted by: chas | May 23, 2008 1:39:12 AM
