"It wasn't the intent... but it was the result".
Intentions are stories we tell to explain the motive behind our behavior.
Behavioral economics is an entire field of study dedicated to understanding why so often, we do not understand and cannot predict our own behavior and intentions.
We rely on these stories because measuring results with accuracy is very hard.
Unless we are engaged in a scientific investigation with specialized tools, all we have to fall back on to judge an action is the story of intent. Which is why we are so familiar with telling stories of intention, it's primarily how everyone makes judgments.
The main problem that arises here, where there is no objective scientific investigation, is that intentions and results are used interchangeably.
This can happen both ways. Whatever a person feels more confident about gets substituted for the other. So:
If I know my intentions, but don't know the results, I will substitute my intentions AS the results
If I know the result of someone else's actions, but don't know their intentions, I will substitute the results AS their intentions.
This results in a lot of errors.
The first step to understanding the difference between intentions and results is acknowledging the difference.
The second is acknowledging that 100% of stories that are not a series of measurements accurately tying a cause to a result (typically through a series of multiple scientific studies) are stories of intention, and should be treated as exercises in entertainment.
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