Skip to main content

The Success Paradox

What if someone told you that your success is an outcome of your luck? Is that enough for you to lash out and explain how your hard work and dedication have gotten you to the position where you are right now? What if I told you that your success is indeed a product of two contradictions? So why is the nature of your success contradictory? Before you could understand that, let's take a couple of minutes to get to know these contradictions. Contradiction 1: Your belief that it's your hard work and countless sleepless nights that have abled you to climb that success ladder and stand at the top. But, on the other hand, Contradiction 2: Your awareness that Contradiction 1 is a lie and your luck has played an important role in getting you where you are. This antithetical concept is the Success Paradox. But why does your success require to be paradoxical? The truth is, it doesn't. But it's the best approach that one should take to remain in touch with reality. It is human natu...

Why Universal Truths Are Not So Universal?

A universal truth is something that is meant to be taken as true at all times regardless of the situation. Still, these truths might form the largest portion of the things that are broken by the universe on a daily basis. The only thing that shields our beliefs from shattering is our acquaintance with that particular truth-shattering event which changes our entire reality once it comes out of the dark.


So, if universal truths are something that could be broken, what value do our personal truths hold in front of them? And if our truths are meaningless, what good is our life?

I have seen that I tend to take my writings to a bleak reality very often. Maybe that is where I think society is headed nowadays. Or maybe, these are the warnings of the forbidden pathways that we should avoid in order to progress towards the betterment of society, and not its destruction. So maybe, I am just highlighting the alternate timelines that I think we should avoid.

Well, back to the matter at hand. You might be wondering, what are the truths that are broken by the universe on a day-to-day basis. Let me provide you with an example of such a cosmic smash.

What do you think about the speed of light? The fastest thing in the universe. Nothing travels faster than the speed of light. Right? Well, what about space? Light travels in the vacuum of space but, as we know, the space is not static. Space is a neverending and ever-expanding cosmic stage for all of its marvels. The speed of light is the fastest thing in the universe but the rate of expansion of space itself is even faster. So, even if nothing travels faster than the speed of light, it puts no bondage over space to not to shatter this notion. So, the next time someone asks you the question, "What is the fastest thing in the universe?" your answer should be - The Expansion of Space! (For the sake of the article, my sample size is quite limited.)

So, if universal truths are not so universal, what value does life hold? It is generally said that the ultimate goal of life is to remain truthful to oneself. But, how do we know if our truth is, objectively speaking, the real truth? And if not, then is there a thing called, "Fake Truths?" and if truths can be faked, does that mean that lies can be true? Does that give birth to, "True Lies?" 

What is the worst lie that anyone can tell? It is generally the lie that one tells to oneself. Lies told to self exist. And if our ultimate goal is to remain truthful to ourselves but, we also lie to ourselves, how can we ever achieve our ultimate goal? And a life lived without the achievement of its ultimate goal is meaningless. The existence of true lies signifies that lies can be true. But, if lies can be true, does that make truth a lie? And if a truth can be a lie, what good is our ultimate goal? So, is it all just meaningless? A never-ending cosmic race with no winner?

No. The winner of this cosmic race is the one who figures out that the concept of truths and lies is made by the human mind which can never be truly objective. A wise person once said, "The universe is under no obligation to make sense to you." and I am a believer of that. What we deem to be true is just something that can be acknowledged with evidence. Something that lacks evidence is termed to be false. But, lack of evidence doesn't necessarily mean what we think it means. There once was a lack of evidence to disprove that the sun revolves around the earth but, that didn't make the sun actually revolve around the earth. The universe wasn't under any obligation to make sense to humanity then and neither it is under such obligation now.

So, don't believe in something you see and don't disprove something that you can't. Claiming something to be "universal" (even truths) is arrogant enough when we don't even know what the universe actually is or how it works. Claiming something to be true when the concept of truth is a progeny of a mind that isn't objective enough is also a little unfair.

So, I think we can conclude that Universal Truths are not so Universal as we neither understand the universe nor what is true. You don't agree? Well, I am also human and maybe my mind is not objective enough so there's always going to be a bias in my writings. Nonetheless, that doesn't change my thoughts on universal truths until I get acquainted with my truth-shattering event. Till then...

...keep reading NotionWave. If you made it this far... you might as well subscribe!

[Thank you for reading this article. If you like the work that I do then please share it with your friends and family. Find the NotionWave Podcast on YouTube.]


Support the work by donating.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Black Baby Test - The Symbolic Stupidity of Being Human

Living in a concrete jungle doesn't necessarily make us civilized. If there ever was a time when humanity didn't distinguish itself on the basis of caste, colour, race, country, and religion then it must have been the most civilized era since the dawn of human civilization.  But, what is the definition of discrimination...? We'll come back to that. There was a time when a study, known as the "Black Baby Test" was conducted in which kids were put to a test to determine which doll out of two, one black and one white, was the ugly one. Surprisingly, the results were skewed in one direction. Most of the kids claimed the black doll to be the ugly one. When asked about their reasoning for picking the black doll, the kids replied with the color of the doll which made them think that black is bad and white is good. So, what was the reason for such a horrific perspective? The researchers concluded that this perspective developed in children as a consequence of the entertai...

WELCOME TO SEASON TWO

Season Two of NotionWave Podcast is in the works. And this time around, it's all about:  ~PARADOXES~ 1. Episode One - The Grandfather Paradox! 2. Episode Two - The Fermi Paradox!

THE SURVIVORSHIP BIAS!

"Exclusion of an important entity from a specific dataset is the precursor to untrue interpretations." - Mayank Mishra. The above statement induces a thought inside of me. A thought for the concept of Survivorship Bias. A bias that limits our critical thinking and pushes us towards illogical interpretations. What is survivorship bias you ask? Survivorship bias or survival bias is the phenomenon in which untrue or false conclusions are drawn because of the exclusion of an entity from a specific list or a group of similar entities because the excluded entity failed to survive in the long run, and hence, was not included in the said list or a group thereby resulting in an illogical interpretation of the dataset. Let's understand it with an example, we often hear that classical music is way better than today's music. This generalization might be because only the best music from older times is played today while today's music, no matter how good or bad it may be, is re...