Thursday, September 27, 2007

decisions, yet again

It is not important to worry about what you want to do as long as you are sure of what you do not want to do.

Backward thinking does help tremendously. I used to worry a lot about the forward angle and worry about finding it so easy to figure out what I do not want and never be able to quite figure out what I want. But it is quite the opposite. Knowing what you want to avoid is a certainty not to be passed out on.

From http://umang.livejournal.com/36819.html about a year ago:

In the locality of the here and now, all decisions can only be baseless. We can hardly comprehend the vast array of the multiple factors that affect us and our lives. Yet we fret over decisions so much, spend so much time and energy on them. And then we claim to have made informed decisions. The truth, my friend, is that us folks of the third rock are masters at self delusion.

But it is good that we do not have access to all the factors that we should pay heed to. The overwhelming vastness of possible choices and outcomes, coupled with the fact that no one knows what they really want is terrifying.

So we trudge along, pretending to have made the right decision looking forward ten years into the future, and believing so even ten years hence thus having the magnanimous capacity of accepting what we are dealt out.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

What we want often depends on what we do. http://reddit.com/info/2trgv/comments
:P

Seriously, don't you think the actual problem is with that 'wanting' itself?

Umang said...

@srid:
Haha... I'm not going to let you drag me into a Zen argument!

ABC said...

I have figure out what I don't want to do... I don't want to work. Now I just need to figure out what to do with all my spare time....

:)

Anonymous said...

ahh, come on.. Zen?? it's a basic fact of human existence. it has to be that way; there is no other way.

ps: blogger sucks.

Pallavi Nopany said...

What fun. I'm glad to have helped to add to the confusion.

Umang said...

@Srid:
Yesh, Blogger does suck when it comes to comments. LJ is the only one to have comments worked out right.

@Pallavi:
Likewise. ;-)