Optimism is the selection of the nature

Lisbon - Week11

[06/11/2012] We got the Amazon accounts and now time to do some experiments on them. Reading is a trap, and it takes time. Mastering Linear Algebra in 10 Days: Astounding Experiments in Ultra-Learning seems to be a promising read. I myself feel the time to accelerate.

Optimism

Being optimistic is the natural choice. We usually worry more about future events, than the past. I usually explain: Say we were worried whether the event X will be favorable to us. We have two possible results. Either X is finally favorable to us, or it is not. If it is favorable, we actually didn't have to worry about it at all, for the past days. If it is not favorable, we didn't still have to worry for the past couple of days, as now we have more time to worry about it. :D My suggestion is, do not worry about the future events unnecessarily. It gives nothing. Each day throws more physical and mental challenges on us. We survive and thrive. We naturally do not worry whether the tomorrow be the last day of the planet, or at least for the individual, where the possibilities are pretty high.

In a parallel world

If we really think about the life events, we can notice one pattern. We can't actually pictorize our life in a chronological order. We remember the events in chunks, instead. For example, I can think about the university life of 2006 - 2010 the lectures, the time we wasted together with friends, and the Google Summer of Code developments (2009 - 2010). But I can hardly multiplex them. I remember how the coding with GSoC was interesting, and also remember the nice times we had at the university, mostly in an independent manner. Because, the life is parallel.

Memories

No matter how hard a situation feels at the moment, the memory it leaves is always a positive one for me. The first half of 2012 was not so easy, and it was full of challenges. However, when reviewing them after a few months, I don't have anything strong to regret. I just have the good memories of the array of events. Minor things we do often make a good memory after a year or two, if not by the end of the year. I am pretty sure the shuttle travel to Taguspark, highly interactive lecture sessions, living alone for the first time, having mixed feelings intermittently, stepping back and thinking positively, these weekly blog posts, and exploring Lisbon - everything will be very interesting memories!