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2.2. Beliefs

By beliefs, we mean those silly little thoughts that we hold unspoken inside, which would, if exposed to the light of rationalism, fall apart in a second's worth of examination. Like the belief that makes you kick the lawn mower when it doesn't start even though the only outcome is to stub your toe (“This thing should work and I'm punishing it for misbehaving”). Or the belief that makes you snap at your spouse for not putting the cap on the toothpaste tube even though you make as many mistakes of that nature as he/she does (“They should live up to certain standards which I punish even myself for not meeting”). Or, to use a more familiar example, the belief that error return checking can be omitted (“It's only a little test program ...