In my freshman year in college, I learned how logic gates do output and input. "0" and "1" translate to a certain voltage ranges, let's say 0-0.5V and 4.5-5V respectively. And the gate will always try to output the voltage corresponding to the bit its trying to output. However, real life is not perfect, there might be interference on the wires on the way, so when you output 5V, it might be received as 4V on the other end. Therefore, each gate must be "tolerant" on its input, and when it sees something above 4V, accept that as "1". Here's how it looks: ![[Noise margin 1.png|500]] I later learned that software has a similar rule, it's called [Postel's Law](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robustness_principle): *be conservative in what you do, be liberal in what you accept from others*. Over time, I came to see this also applies to interpersonal relationships. Someone says something, and it sounds off to you. Maybe something got lost in the communication, and there's a [[Intention-perception gap|gap]] between what they intended (their output) and what you've heard (your input)? [[On average, 50% of your communication problems are directly yours]], so it could really go either way. The solution is to give some noise margin to communication. Be tolerant on your input and correct for noise, but meticulous in your output and limit noise. #published 2025-02-13