Too frequently, in my role as a university professor, I encounter the following situation. Mid-semester, a student in my class shows up at my office.  The student has done almost no work and is failing badly.  Yet the prospect of a failing grade is so repellent to the student that he (or she) absolutely cannot accept it as a possible outcome.  The student fantasizes that it cannot and will not occur.  So he assures me that he really knows the material, that he will study hard, and that he will get an excellent grade on the final exam. As he tells me this, I know that there is absolutely no chance that any of it will come to pass.  But as he says it, he believes it.  However, I know, with 99.9% certainty, that I will be entering a failing grade for him at the end of the semester.  He knows with equal certainty that I will not.  He deludes himself because reality is too painful to confront, and so he continues on in his deluded state until...(Read Full Post)