[Ads-l] Optimist: The glass is half full. Pessimist: The glass is half empty

[James Landau]

On Wed, 6 Apr 2022 12:03:19 Zone - 0400  ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
<quote>  I received a request to explore the saying in the subject line. A
related saying says "The glass is either half empty or half full".<end  quote>
A variation: there is added "the engineer says the glass is twice as big as it needs to be".
Google Books gives three citations from what it claims to be 2000, but none of the 2000 dates are checkable.  (One has a copyright page with no date on it!)    There are a number of snippet hits from the 1990's which I did not bother to check out. 
There are five hits from 2001.  Choosing one at random:
https://www.google.com/books/edition/Science_Askew/Bs6fBwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq="glass+is+twice+as+big"&pg=PA178&printsec=frontcover


Science Askew: A Light-hearted Look at the Scientific World 
books.google.com › booksDonald E Simanek, ‎John. Holden · 2001
page 178 <quote>To the engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be
 Doing the impossible In these days, a man who says a thing cannot be done is quite apt to be interrupted by some idiot doing it. Elbert Green Hubbard (1856–1915) U.S. author .<end quote>..

Variations: rather than "engineer", one hit says "tbe design team" and one says "the consultant"
Science Askew - Google Books
James Landau
jjjrlandau at netscape.com

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