I'm not sure I see the problem the quotation is attacking then. Allowing for the very real possibility that I'm oblivious or live in a bubble, my model of how people work has them understanding the difference between "ought" and "expected" most of the time.
I get the impression that there is a real insight here into how people think about the world, but there's a disconnect between the idea and the author's words that I'm not bridging.
my model of how people work has them understanding the difference between "ought" and "expected" most of the time
Understanding it and applying it are two different things, in the same way that knowing about a bias doesn't stop you from exhibiting it.
People tend to obsess over things that "shouldn't have" happened -- a mistake they made, an embarrassing situation, something infuriating that somebody else did, or some impending but inevitable life change. They fret and scheme and worry and just can't seem to get it out of t...
Here's another installment of rationality quotes. The usual rules apply: