Have You Ever Caught Yourself Lying About a Win? Exaggerating to Someone Who Wasn't There?

[DublinDegen]

felt this constantly...

everyone around me seemed to be winning...

couldn't understand why i was the only one struggling...

probably wasn't the only one struggling...

just the only one not hiding it well...

 

[ThePuntingProf]

I have done this and the specific memory that comes to mind involves not a friend but my son James, several years ago I had an unusually good month and mentioned it to him in a way that I now recognize was designed to communicate that the betting was under control and working rather than to accurately describe what had happened, I gave him the good month without the context of the surrounding bad quarters, James is not a bettor and does not understand the variance involved, he would have taken the good month at face value as evidence that his father had a handle on something sensible, I was using a true fact to construct a false impression, Margaret would never have allowed me to do this with the children, she had a specific way of adding context without contradicting me directly that prevented exactly this kind of selective truth, I have no one to do that now and apparently left to myself I will use real wins to build impressions I know are misleading.

 

[TaffyTipster]

"Using a true fact to construct a false impression."

Prof that's a precise description of how most of these lies work.

Never technically untrue. Just arranged to mislead.

 

[FadeThePublic]

The selective truth is harder to catch than an outright lie.

You can defend every individual statement.

The impression they combine to create is the dishonesty.

 

[CoachTony_Bets]

Margaret as the context-adder.

Someone whose presence prevented the selective truth from landing as a complete one.

There's a role in relationships that does that work. Quietly. Without confrontation.

Just a presence that makes the full picture visible.

 

[SharpEddie47]

When that presence is gone the selective truth has nothing to correct it.

And apparently most of us don't correct it ourselves.

 

[DublinDegen]

never had anyone who did that for me honestly...

no one adding context...

just me and whatever version i wanted to present...

probably made everything worse longer...

 

[oli_sussex]

Question worth asking:

Has anyone ever told the true version of a win unprompted.

Not the corrected version after being caught. Just voluntarily told the accurate story including the context that reduces the impressiveness.

 

[TaffyTipster]

No.

 

[SharpEddie47]

Not that I can remember.

 

[CoachTony_Bets]

Once maybe. To my wife. And I think I was hoping she'd reassure me it was still impressive.

Which is its own problem.

 

[ParlayPrincess_88]

I told my sister the accurate loss number.

That's the closest I've come to voluntarily presenting the unfiltered version.

But that was losses not wins.

Wins I don't think I've ever told accurately.