We often let the thought of the unknown overwhelm us. Because the future is not set, the possibilities are endless. And because the wonderings of our minds are unbounded, we easily lose grip of it and it becomes too difficult to rein it in. So we let our minds wander.
Endless possibilities exist in the next minute. What are we to say of the next year? Continue reading “On controlling the future”
… then I’m less of a coward than I was last year.
It’s my 24th birthday today, and trust me, my 23-year old self would not have found the courage to make this post. Maybe he would have written it, but it would never see the light of day.
I’m growing.
You do something impressive. I mean, you all by yourself come by an obscure solution to a pesky problem. And of course you’re impressed by that feat.
When you do enough of that, when you come across answers that are not very obvious, that could only have been arrived at by some sophisticated line of thinking, you start to feel entitled. Continue reading “Thinking Machines”
In the event that things don’t turn out the way we plan for it to, all hell has the potential to go loose. It is instinctual to want order in our lives. But one of the most dominant things in our existence is the ever presence of chaos, unpredictability, the unknown–in the weather, in the response and reaction of others around us, in the future. We are surrounded by uncertainties and it is normal for us to want to exert control and authority over the things closest to us, over the people around us. It is only human of us to want to be in charge of something, because then, we don’t feel so helpless and useless.
I was in the middle of my devotion this morning (one of my morning routines) and as I was meditating, I was thankful for my position in space-time, my lacks, my wants, my families and friends, my life. Then a simple phrase just popped into my mind, right in the middle of my appreciation:
MEMENTO MORI
It was so profound and resonant that I had to pause and listen clearly. It came again: Memento Mori.
Life is not just a game, according to Jordan Peterson, it is a set of games, and the rule is never sacrifice victory across a set of games for victory in a single game.
It’s simple. Our lives are made up of series of events, and while all these events and our responses to them define the kind of life we have, no single event is our life.
The important thing is, while we are doing everything we can to make each event as successful as possible in order to richly fortify our life as a whole, there are some times when victory in a single game would significantly alter our life negatively. And such an impact might be very hard to recover from.
