You Are Not The One
When the right time comes, whether you are in your late twenties or thirties, you realize that you are not “the one”. You are merely a fortunate soul who came to life as a person instead of a tree. Your probability is incredible. While there are notable exceptions like Sir Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein, and Nikola Tesla, it’s important to remember that such individuals are outliers, not the standard by which we should measure ourselves.
You always imagined that you were a special person, your consciousness made you believe that. But to be truly special, life has to choose you first. What do I mean by that? I mean, making the correct decision at the right time with all the knowledge you have. Even then, there are no guarantees to prove the correctness of your decision. Your idea may be fragile, but you can believe it is strong enough to change your life forever. As a result, you cannot be fully prepared for such moments.
Perception
Have you ever heard of “If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?” This thought experiment questions the nature of existence and perception. George Berkeley, a philosopher, posited that objects of sense exist only when they are perceived. Hence, a tree in a garden exists only as long as someone is there to perceive it — A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge, published in 1710.
I have asked this question to many of my friends, and ~50% of them answered as “no, it doesn’t make a sound.” Maybe they answered this way because they know this experiement, so I have a better one. While reading this article, did the country of Sri Lanka come to mind? Probably not. Reality only exists if your perception is wide enough. Of course, there is a counterargument to the tree falls experiment: “In order to state that a tree in the forest is falling, there must be an observer to acknowledge that event” — which also makes sense.
It is crucial for our perception to guide us in utilizing all we know in necessary moments — like taking responsibility and making decisions as a senior engineer. To achieve these, you must use your entire being, whether consciously or unconsciously.
Seeing the Invisible
How do you know if your perception is wide enough? You can’t know in advance; it only becomes apparent in hindsight. When the Corona pandemic struck, some people built a system to track the virus’s progress using the WHO’s API. I hadn’t thought of that, but others did. A similar moment of insight occurred on 14 February 2005, when YouTube was invented. The idea was simple: “Let’s build a website where people can upload their videos”. Yet, it appears that only a handful of people could conceive this.
With the help of technology, now we have more opportunity than ever before. Actually, we are overwhelmed with information everyday. New inventions are happening around the world every second. Probably, you have contributed to none. It’s because those who have invented something new had the right thoughts with all knowledge they had before and they saw an opportunity to invent something tangible. Why not you? Because if your sample pool includes 8 billion subjects, your probability of doing something is very low.
But still, you must be ready for such moments. These moments comes without warning. You must improve yourself without losing your health. As I mentioned in A Shift In Mindset: The Million Dollar Opportunity I Missed, I have missed my chance too. Every structured knowledge that you have is increases your chance to see the invisible when the right time comes.
Conclusion
You don’t need to be perfect or multi-billionaire. Everyone wants to be happy with their own way. If your way crosses with moments that I have talked earlier, prepare it with patience. Mastering to think about every problem from different perspectives is a hard thing. I always imagined these moments like the knowledge that you seek is outside of your space. You are seeking something that is not available to you. Think that as outside of observable universe. Your knowledge is inside of the boundary but the information you seek is outside. There is no way to see it, research it or think it.