Welcome to the land of Indecisionia.
Hello there, people. Really long time, no see. That's on me though. What happened, you ask? What with classes, assignments, projects and desperately trying to spend every waking - non academic moment watching something or the other, there has been little time to actually sit down and type. As always, welcome to this teeny weeny corner of the fake world we live, work and relax in. This time around, I've run out of new introductions so there's no fancy metaphor comparing this blog to a field or to social networking giants or something like that. This time, it's a honest to God introduction.
(As an aside though, welcome to my small and growing tree in the sprawling forest that is the Internet - hope this tree offers peace, air, shelter, food and all that.) ; )
Quarantine's trying its best to stay strong in it's 8th month of being alive - these days of uncertainty, with more and more people deciding to forego masks for freshly polluted air and a possible threat of infection. That aside, it's my favorite time of the day, everyone's asleep, recordings of a glorious voice that cannot be recorded anymore are dominating my sense of hearing and distracting my thoughts as I stare at the desktop - not knowing exactly it is that I wanted to write about - blah blah blah. I've done enough of these situation and surrounding descriptions now, and as a regular reader you can easily visualize the setting I'm typing in.
One of the many things that I've been wanting to write about in here, is food. But then, there are millions of other websites which do the same - food reviews, restaurant reviews, recipes, history, geography etc - even conspiracy theories! No, there has to be something that sets this blog entry five feet apart from the rest of the sites mulling for your attention. What about comparing food to people? There exist people who are as sweet and underrated as the vanilla icecream is, or are not so good and are overrated - like <insert icecream flavour you hate here> icecream. Honest to God Italian pizza versus a knock of with margarine substituted for cheese. But then, there exist people who like margarine, and there exist people who like <insert ....... here> icecream. Highly subjective, and not safe for blog (NSFB). Uhuh. What now?
While that sounds like a good idea, coming up with content that doesn't offend people and yet do honest comparison seems to be a lot to ask for from a single person. And so, we come to today's blog entry :
To do or not to do?
This is a burning question in today's world. From waking up in the morning to brushing our teeth before sleep, there's a decision making process involved in every human action. Counting the number of things that a person might do in a day, and multiplying that with the number of people living on the Earth, the sheer number of decisions being made and the magnitude of the effect these decisions have on the lives of people are staggering.
There are brilliant decisions that lead the world in a new direction and foster a new age of growth and arts and science and philosophy and then there are decisions that do the opposite - plunge the world into depression and losses it cannot possibly bounce back from. Seemingly small decisions - are you going to carry an umbrella on a perfectly sunny-but-not-sunny-enough-to-warrant-an-umbrella day and risk looking silly when there's no rain or does your gut tell you there's going to be rain later that day? This simple decision might decide whether you look overprepared or whether you're saved from a terrible cold.
Fans of the popular television series Big Bang Theory might remember this episode titled 'The Wiggly Finger Catalyst. Sheldon, one of the geeky physicists of the show, decides to not waste his tremendous thinking capacity on small and non-affecting decisions like choice of meal and instead spend it on life altering discoveries and inventions. Acting as a substitute for the human brain is a dice, whose outcome decides Sheldon's trivial choices. Thus goes the scene:
Scene: The Cheesecake Factory.
Leonard: Are we ready to order?
Sheldon: One moment. I’m conducting an experiment.
Howard: With Dungeons and Dragons dice?
Sheldon: Yes. From here on in, I’ve decided to make all trivial decisions with a throw of the dice, thus freeing up my mind to do what it does best, enlighten and amaze. Page 14, item seven.
Howard: So, what’s for dinner?
Sheldon: A side of corn succotash. Hmm. Interesting. Let’s see what I’ll be washing that succotash down with. A pitcher of margaritas.
Sheldon: That’s the great thing. It doesn’t matter. My mind is freed up to think about more important things.
Raj: What’s it thinking about now?
Sheldon: Hamburgers and lemonade.
Sheldon: And now for dessert, come on, hot fudge sundae, come on, hot fudge sundae. Bam! That’s what I’m talking about!
The dice makes decisions in lieu of Sheldon - it comes out with an interesting meal indeed... a meal composed entirely of a side and complimented by liquor, of which Sheldon is not a fan of. While Sheldon thinks these actions free his brain from thinking about trivial decisions, it's still doing that - as evident by his reply to Raj and his craving for hot fudge sundae. Not just that - it has another trivial thought now - that being Sheldon's brain, probably a calculation of the odds of him getting hot fudge sundae for dessert. The story continues:
Scene: The apartment.
Penny: Mustache is looking good there, Sheldon.
Sheldon: Don’t thank me. Thank the dice. They told me what percentage of my face to shave.
Howard: Why are you still doing this?
Sheldon: Because it’s working. In the past few weeks, unburdened by trivial decisions, I’ve co-authored two papers in notable peer-reviewed journals, and I’m close to figuring out why the Large Hadron Collider has yet to isolate the Higgs boson particle.
<a short while later>
Sheldon: Should I use the rest room or wait until we get home? Come on, papa needs to void his bladder. Oh, that’s not what you want to see after three buttermilks. (disappointed)
So what, we never take a decision and let things happen on their own? Do we really want to let other peoples' actions and decisions decide our course of life? Imagine someone walking into your electronics store and walking off with a product every now and then - while you wait for them to stop by and pay you the money they very clearly owe. Do we decide to confront them or just let them walk away with our hard earned earnings?
As should be evident by now, randomised decisions are useless - decisions have to be made after some thought of the cost and the consequence. While the decisions of others can affect the surrounding and hence influence the decision, the decision itself has to be made by oneself. Rash and uninformed decisions are often the root of trouble. Imagine not waiting for your phone to fill up assuming its battery will hold up - only to realise half way through the day that whatever was in there was woefully inadequate - something that we can all relate with!
So, yes. At a risk of sounding all grown up and condescending, decisions are important. They decide (haha) whether we're alive on Earth this moment or (unsuccessfully) flapping about in space having fallen from a glider wearing a chicken feather flying suit found in an 18th century locker. There's no right decision. No decision is consistent. Just like circumstances can change in the blink of an eye, decisions can too! For no apparent reason. The brain just decides that decision is not good enough, and replaces it with a new one. Same randomness as there was at the beginning of this post. Possibly more, the brain might be getting some funny ideas about decision making right now.
This post. A bit of a backstory. While I sat down wanting to write about food and people and sometime later annoying ads and people responses, they felt like something this blog hasn't seen, and gave the feeling this blog deserved more. As I sat there trying to decide what on Earth to write about, as I sat there racking my brain for all the brilliant ideas it spews when I have no way to jot them down, this came up - what if we write about the struggle of making an informed decision? I choose a topic, start writing about it and decide that it will not have an audience, halfway. End up deciding on a new topic, still in indecision on whether it's a good read. And then, it struck, maybe we should pass on some of this decision making insecurities to the reader! Hence the post.
What is the takeaway, then? Well, hopefully, about three minutes of interesting reading and a minute or so of introspection is all I ask for :D
DISCLAIMER: Hello again, reader! This post is a bit of a deviation from my nine (9!) other posts (hope that count is right) and is literally me sitting down and typing away whatever comes to mind - isn't blogging all about this? As a side effect, you might see holes in the plot and/or spelling and grammar mistakes. Please feel free to contact, and leave your thoughts and comments on this one. Who knows, maybe, one of your comments will end up being the content for my next post! The world is but a weird place to live in.
*trying hard not to sound like yet another YouTuber trying to get subscribers and those coveted Play buttons *
Starting out as a place where I jot down my thoughts and having come all the way to serving as my primary medium of expression, this blog means a lot to me. Every view, every read and every subscription feels really good. The last month especially, getting a read each from three new countries! Now that's something unexpected. Feel free to forward good posts to people you know, and keep tabs on this corner of the Internet, as always :)
Also, congratulations on persevering and coming this far, as always! Here's a virtual pat on the back. :"D
You are so talented dude. This write up made me feel so much better. Thank you:)))
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