[OFF TOPIC] This blew my mind, for real AAAGH
·
Mar 28
25
In my life, there have been insights that have profoundly transformed me, or things I considered important but never truly applied.
The insight I had now is more like a plot twist, as if I discovered that Bob, the protagonist's dumb dog, is actually named John and was a shapeshifter who owned a mafia business and killed his owner's parents out of pure sadism while laughing as he watched the protagonist become increasingly dependent on him, dying of loneliness and grief.
This knowledge, if you don't know it, can be quite malicious for your life, trapping you in bad decisions, like taking care of Bob, the sociopathic dog.
Good decisions can often result in bad outcomes.
Perhaps you've heard something like "life is like a game of chess," and the better you move the pieces, the better you do in the game of life. However, this isn't true. Life is more like a game of poker; you can try to get out of a bad situation using probability, but the luck factor can still make you lose. The difference is that good decisions can result in a greater probability of success.
Let's suppose you were invited to a talk show to talk about your profession. But then you analyze the comments from that talk show and see harsh criticism of the interviewees. You look at yourself and think, "I'm not able to filter my words, the interviewer is difficult to deal with, and the comments are harsh. I'm going to invest in my public speaking skills and look for another opportunity."
Your decision is based on facts. You fear that you might damage your image more than improve it, and you wouldn't have the patience to deal with the extreme ideologies and insensitive questions of the interviewer. The best option is to improve yourself and look for better opportunities later.
However, something happens: your friend in the same field decides to go and suddenly goes viral. He didn't present very well, but due to the interviewer getting involved in a live scandal, he ended up going viral. Your friend started receiving more visibility even though he is less hardworking and disinterested than you.
You then regret it and think, "If it had been me..."
However, you were right from the start.
Your friend was lucky, favored by the algorithm, by circumstances. The luck factor suddenly rained down on him, and this can last for a long or short time, who knows. This is more common than it seems.
You can study for exams instead of partying and still get bad grades. You can make the right decision and still be reprimanded by your boss. You can invest your money in a good company and still end up losing everything. A good example of this was Nubank, which invested in the Americanas company that was involved in a money laundering scandal and caused several investors who trusted the bank to lose a lot of money.
Nubank wasn't wrong. Americanas was a consolidated company in the market, and the chances of such corruption with so many eyes on it were low. Probabilistically, investing was a good idea.
But it went wrong.
Life is a gamble, and we only control the variable.
Returning to the poker example, you can lose a game due to luck, but if you make choices based on logic, you can still win almost every time. Because the odds of winning are higher than losing if you know how to move the cards well. When playing poker, you are betting on the possibility that is closer to winning than the version of yourself that didn't use those methods and lost.
And the same thing happens in life. By investing in your studies and exercise, you are investing in the version of yourself that will live longer and have more energy and happiness, rather than that version of yourself that is obese and has several cardiovascular problems in old age.
It's a gamble, and there's a high probability that by taking these actions you will achieve that result.
Don't confuse decision and result.
Life isn't like a game of chess where every good decision takes you where you want to go. In real life, a good decision can screw you over, it can cause you to lose your job, it can cause you to run someone over with a car. However, probabilistically, the chances of something going wrong are much lower than if you didn't do what you did.
Decision-making is about that; it's a big game of betting based on probabilities, not a causal skill. Separating the outcome from the decision couldn't be clearer that they are different realms.
The outcome is beyond your control; the only thing you can do is make good decisions. The newspaper might say that the chances of rain tomorrow are 90%, and it might not rain. Was the newspaper wrong then? Wrong. As long as the odds aren't 0, the newspaper will always be right. It measured the probabilities and concluded that there was a high chance of rain tomorrow, but it might not happen.
A good result doesn't necessarily mean good decisions, and good decisions don't necessarily mean good results. Everything is a gamble based on probabilities, a bet between a version of yourself that has a higher chance of success or failure.
Regretting a good decision is futile.
The only thing we have control over are decisions, and decisions are merely bets based on probability. I've missed job opportunities that, if I had taken them, might have yielded great results, but the risk was losing my stable routine. The opportunity cost of doing that activity simply didn't pay off in the long run.
Even so, due to external pressure, I sacrificed my mental health and sleep to adapt to the interview profile; in the end, I broke down in the process, stopped studying, and lost my way in life. Having this experience, I decided not to accept a recent offer because I felt I was still too inexperienced to go to a large company that would demand much more effort and commitment, something I might only have in three months.
Accelerating can turn those three months into a year, or a year might never even happen.
My decision cost me a potentially good job, but was my decision wrong? Far from it, I made the best decision for myself, but at the moment, the results look bad. However, in the long run, my successful version of myself, drawing and writing novels in good health at 60, has gained strength over my obese, sick, and lonely version.
I am investing in my consistent image over my impulsive one. And whether I will achieve that, it's hard to say. But the chances are greater than if I didn't do what I'm doing now.
Did you understand the point of it?
This really blew my mind; tell this to a perfectionist and they'll spit in your face. I might write a bad chapter trying something different and receive harsh criticism, I can lose good readers, I might disappoint a loyal reader, but in the long run, that action brings me more benefits than if I had never done it. My image as a competent writer becomes greater than my mediocre and anxious version.
Understanding this fully simply makes life incredibly lighter, because you understand that you did everything within your control, you understand that in the end you always win, because by being consistent, the probability of success is infinitely greater than by being intense and unstable.
AAAAGH, that's so awesome! Do you understand what a brilliant insight that is? I feel like running around discussing this topic everywhere, I feel like writing chapters I've never written before, it's simply mind-blowing.
Anyway, I hope you find this knowledge useful.
Here's a cookie 🍪
Intermission
Chapter 68: Intermission [PART 1].
·
4h
26
"Mmp—beep… beep… beep…"
An alarm sound invaded Connie's ears, muffled by her thick, soft blue blanket.
Her eyes squeezed shut as if glued together with mortar, and her eyebrows furrowed lazily.
She raised her hand into the air, trying to find something to stop the irritating sound, but no matter how much she waved it around, the only thing she found was empty air.
Connie felt a slight uneasiness in her chest. She always slept on the left side of the bed, right next to her alarm clock. So why did it seem so far away today?
"Beep… beep…! Beep!"
The noise grew increasingly unbearable, and Connie's hands still didn't touch anything. At some point, her eyelids finally opened, revealing red, tired, unfocused eyes.
"Ugh…"
With an awkward yawn, Connie dismissed the insistent alarm signaling that it was already 6 AM and she had to get ready for school.
She rubbed her heavy eyes with one hand and reached for her glasses with the other. But instead of the hard frame or the smooth lenses, her fingers brushed against soft strands of hair and caught a faint scent of lavender.
Connie looked down, revealing an unusual sight. A little girl with dark, slightly curly, messy hair slept beside her, one hand clutching her shirt.
Surprisingly, Connie had woken up before Asha. Every morning, Asha was already awake, reading a book or in their mother's room. Although they slept together, Asha always woke very early, as soon as the sun began to rise.
The sunlight streaming through the window illuminated her peaceful, sleeping face. Asha, still wearing her usual white dress, looked like a fairy straight out of a storybook.
Connie's breath caught in her throat as she took in the image before her.
Her eyes scanned Asha's face, then drifted down to her dress. It was a simple white dress, off-the-shoulder, with small details on the chest and a bow at the waist. But Connie wasn't admiring it. She was focused on the area around her stomach.
The tear stains had dried some time ago, but Connie's memories hadn't faded. She remembered the embarrassing things she had said, the ugly face she had made, and the desperation in her hug.
She, supposedly the older sister, had cried uncontrollably in her disabled sister's arms because she had no friends.
Just thinking about it made her head ache. Yet beneath the tangled emotions, there was also a sense of comfort.
"We're friends now…"
Those were the words Asha had written to her. Connie could still feel the care in those crooked lines.
Her lips curled upward involuntarily as her hands moved to caress the little girl's unruly hair. Her cheeks still tingled, but here, alone, Connie felt no need to suppress those feelings.
She stroked Asha's hair and buried her face against her cheek, as if trying to draw strength from her.
Asha was a very heavy sleeper. Even if someone poked her in the middle of the night, she wouldn't flinch. She always slept for exactly seven and a half hours and never woke once. If Connie had to guess, she wouldn't be surprised if 80% of that sleep was deep sleep.
Of course, there was still a slight risk that Asha might wake soon, given how close it was to her usual time. But if even Connie felt exhausted after going to bed so late, Asha, who slept far more soundly, probably wouldn't wake up yet.
Connie had no intention of letting go anytime soon. But after a few minutes, something began to bother her.
'Why can't I feel her breathing?'
Asha's body felt colder than usual. Her fingers were stiff, and her heartbeat was faint.
As Connie became more alert, she started noticing more unsettling details.
She pulled back from the embrace and lowered her head, pressing her ear against Asha's chest.
The heartbeat was slow, so slow it almost seemed nonexistent. Connie's focus snapped back, and her hands moved quickly to check Asha's pulse.
Just like her heartbeat, it was barely detectable.
Finally, Connie placed a finger beneath Asha's nostrils. She held it there, waiting to feel even the slightest breath, but there was nothing, or if it existed, it was so faint that it could hardly be felt.
Connie's heart began to race as the pieces came together in her mind.
No breathing. A dangerously slow heartbeat. A barely detectable pulse.
All of it pointed to a single word.
Cardiac arrest.
*
Author's note
Nothing better than starting an intermission right at the trauma lol. I hope you enjoyed it, and have a good day. As I said yesterday, I might take a little while to reply today; I'm probably walking at this hour. I chose PM instead of AM lol
Here is a cookie 🍪
DISCORD: https://discord.gg/bWUwPg5wkK