Assumptions are the side effects of well-intended silence that wants to try so hard to put the happiness of the other before that of the self. And yet, reconciliation of these two opposing forces is a constant negotiation - adults call it compromise or something like that. I call it the art of, "I don't want to actually tell you how I feel because I'm afraid of how it will make you feel." De Botton calls this chapter, "Silly Things", that is, avoiding spelling things out which in your own world view should be understood and don't warrant a legitimate explanation because they are too negligible to hold any weight. How can you not just know (what do you mean you can't read my mind)?

So we spend the next decade tip-toeing around each other's insecurities, widening the gap through which our assumptions can come in and settle comfortably on the now creaking floors of the foundation we thought was once impenetrable. They feed off of our egos, they drink off of our resentment, which replenishes itself with the secret stash we hide under our conviction in each other...until we are simply exhausted without any justification besides the one we created in our own minds. While we were busy protecting ourselves and each other from the pangs of truth, look what they came and did to our home, these silly assumptions.