The road to success is often long and arduous. But unlike the saying, sometimes not all roads lead to Rome.
Or maybe they do, but it would be futile either way, especially if you need a visa to enter Italy and you don’t meet the minimum requirements to apply for one, or you’re not exempted to enter because of some COVID restrictions.
In hopes of achieving the much-desired success, which I don’t exactly know in what, I’ve read a lot of Tweets, watched many YouTube videos, had to sit through several ads without being able to skip them, read a book or two, and discussed the subject with people who are more successful than I am.
Mainly OnlyFans models, and TikTokers.
All these sources seemed to agree on one thing and one thing only, which they highlighted more than any other factor that could influence one’s journey to success.
After concurring that I couldn’t make a living posting content on TikTok or OnlyFans, I was reassured that the key to success is to keep grinding.
However, I’ve been doing just that for the past 10 years at Starbucks, yet I still somehow managed to get myself fired.
Guess I’ll have to continue grinding at home now.
One of the ads which I also mentioned in this previous article talks about how successful CEOs read on average a book per week.
I couldn’t skip the ad, so by the end, I was kind of convinced. (?)
I followed suit and decided to try this myself by going to the local library daily.
Going there became the activity I looked most forward to. Making it the best time of the day for me.
And, indeed, a chance to be around books, which filled the rooms with a woody aroma.
The local library was full of interesting books. It also had an incredibly sweet spot where it’s quiet and nice.
I could sleep for 2 hours without anyone bothering me.
Taking naps can be quite relaxing and refreshing. You get an opportunity to wake up and start afresh, starting from scratch. Much like Descartes and his quest for certainty.
But things become very tricky when you have to make a choice. It’s always a tough one. Especially if you don’t know whether you should take that nap or do something more ‘productive’.
How do we ‘know’ in this case which decision is better? Should we wait until we have sufficient evidence before we can act? Or can we act based on some sort of belief that the decision we’re going to take is the right one?
Were we to wait until we had enough evidence, by the time we’ve collected sufficient data, and subsequently concluded with certainty which decision would be better, it would have been dinner time by then, yet another tough decision to make!
Philosopher William James argues that there are certain instances when we can’t just wait until we have sufficient evidence before we could act.
When it comes to our quest for ‘knowledge, mainly scientific knowledge, we ought to be empiricists because we wouldn’t want a mobile phone’s battery exploding in our pockets. So unless it’s an urgent matter, we could wait a few more months, even years before we come to preliminary conclusions over scientific matters (think Higgs Boson, etc.)
However, if we’re trying to decide whether or not we would want to take a nap or watch a football match, then in this case we might want to act based on a belief of ours for which we might not have enough ‘evidence.’
But James is very careful when it comes to that. Because he is well aware of the problems that might ensue were we to say any belief is warranted.
In his essay The Will to Believe he explains that when it comes to epistemic domains, we ought not to lead ourselves to believe whatever we wanted. 1+1 = 2. The earth isn’t flat. etc.
However, in practical matters, things that we do on a daily basis, like deciding to ask someone out, or while facing a moral dilemma, or deciding whether we are going to become fans of PSG because Messi signed for them, then chances are we might have to decide, more often than not, without having enough evidence.
But to concretize matters a bit more, James says that it is ok to do this only under the following condition: when our option regarding these practical matters is basically GENUINE. What does that mean?
A genuine option according to him is one where we are choosing between two live hypotheses, our option is forced, and it is momentous.
A live hypothesis is a proposition to believe something that is plausible. I believe Jeff Bezos will choose me to go to Space. Well, if I don’t have millions to pay for the trip now, I’m delusional, barring a miracle of course.
A forced option is one where we can’t just NOT make a decision: If I have the millions, I will either have to choose to pay to go or decide not to.
A momentous option is one that might have significant consequences on our lives: if I really, really want to go to Space, then the fact that I have to choose to go or not is momentous.
Apply this to moral dilemmas, studies and career choices, getting married, helping others, moving to another country, etc. All these situations require that we make choices without really having sufficient evidence about the best course of action.
Much like my journey to success.
I’ll now have to get back to grinding, my coffee order from Amazon just arrived.
You can find me on Twitter @decafquest.
Link to the article on Medium.