The name “Lake Disappointment” captures a real human moment: expecting fresh water but finding a salt pan.

We don’t evaluate anything in isolation; rather, we compare things to our expectations around them.

The brain constantly generates predictions about the world and updates them in response to incoming data.

At the turn of the century, water determined everything in inland exploration. It decided where livestock could survive, which in turn limited how far expeditions could travel. For entire routes through the desert, fresh water decided whether it was worth leaving home at all.

When Frank Hann, the explorer who mapped large areas of Western Australia, finally reached a vast lake marked by promising rivers and geographical patterns, he hoped he had found a substantial freshwater source. Instead, he discovered an enormous salt pan, undrinkable and effectively useless as far as the expedition was concerned.

He named this body of water “Lake Disappointment.”

The name then went on to appear in maps and government records and persisted for more than a century. The lake was an official “disappointment” until Western Australia restored the traditional Martu name, Kumpupintil, in 2020.

Naming things, especially things that are important, sounds like a serious enterprise. Most of our surroundings have names that are either pompous or decidedly neutral, as though they emerged naturally alongside the terrain itself without a creative spark. “Lake Disappointment,” by contrast, carries traces of a real human moment: the excitement of finding the lake, and the petty name-calling when it turned out to be less than expected.

Notice how the lake isn’t objectively disappointing. As far as bodies of water go, you’d be........

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