Let's muse

There’s a war of ideas going on in the Western world, as there should be. As abundance, automation, and technology is frees up more and more time for the general masses, while simultaneously threatening to topple over the very building blocks of society (employment being an obvious one), it is leaving humans with a lot of time on their hands to really think thoroughly about the lenses they use to view and verify reality. It is easy to gauge why such discussions did not take place in the historical past to the extent that they are taking place today. Even in 1895, when the Industrial Revolution had tightened its grasp on the daily lives of commoners, the average person lived on less than a dollar a day, below the UN’s threshold for abject poverty. This is really a testament to the fact that even until recently, the world constituted absolutely terrible suffering for its inhabitants. History is a teary, bloody mess, filled with disease, terror, hardship, infidelity, discrimination, and every possible hammer to your state of being that one can imagine. So it’s understandable that philosophical conversations were scarce in a world where people tried their absolute best simply to live to see the next day and to ensure their families did so.

But it is different now. At least far better than it used to be. The sheer number of scientific discoveries and advancements that got us to where we are today is huge, and can fill up libraries upon libraries of densely packed books, as it rightfully does so today. But the end result of it is something we live through everyday and don’t really appreciate to the extent we should- we are living exponentially better lives with access to healthcare, education, liberty, leisure, luxury, and other amenities that our ancestors could not even imagine would exist in heaven. Even though it is not the case for everyone, things surely are great, and will only get better as time goes by.

For the majority of history, humans have battled hard- with their own nature, with the cruel forces of inadequacy and with other people, and have lived short and grueling lives under ruthless circumstances to fulfill their physical needs and wants. When your daily income was less than a dollar a day, and your life depended on the mercy of the local landlord, and on the hesitation of neighboring conquerors, there was not much you could do to ensure a livelihood, other than to live by the dictates of your superiors, and hard did the nobility make the commoners work. From churches to cathedrals to mansions to statues, all was the fruit of the blood and sweat of the peasants, but the property of the kings and the emperors and the merchants. In return, they got barely enough food (enough to live, if one was willing to forego one or two meals a day), livable shelters (livable being the overstatement of the century), and the permission to live. Well, that was all the proletariat could really ask for without having their throats slit by the cold metal of the swords of the bourgeoisie.

Something must have happened in the last 300 years, that must have caused the radical transformation of society from a hellish den of chaotic, pitiless torture to a peaceful mountain top overlooking the vast expanse of potential and well-being. Something must have happened to liberate people, by the billions, from the iron shackles of helplessness, despair, and suffering. Something must have happened to condense, into around three centuries, the progress that people imagined to be spread over countless eons. And to find that something, we have to look no further than the Enlightenment, to the likes of John Locke, Adam Smith, and other liberated minds. These people were at the forefront of a new way of life. A way of life, which made possible the most significant improvement in human well-being in the entire history of Homo Sapiens. 

Separating and dissecting the tenets that propelled the Enlightenment, the most fundamental idea that all their work possessed was a semi-religious emphasis on the importance of  the freedom of the individuals to live their lives by their own accord, without being restricted by the dictates of the collective, of the tribe, or of the government. It was this focus on the sovereignty of the individual that was the foundation of the work of John Locke, his legendary declaration that “all individuals own themselves”, and the bulk of Adam Smith’s “The Wealth of Nations”, the Bible of the capitalist school of thought, that was, and continues to be to this date, the biggest liberator of individuals across the social spectrum from the lottery of their birth. A society that values the sovereignty of the individual is one that gives people the ability to turn their lives around and transform their fates by the virtues of hard work and personal responsibility. It is one that truly frees individuals from cultural pressures, from differences in upbringing, and from the age-old iron weight of taboo and stigma.

All of this sounds prophetic, but prophetic declarations are not even close to being enough to lift around 90% of the world out of debilitating starvation, harrowing illiteracy and frighteningly low lifespans. There is, of course, a single foundational assumption about the nature of individuals that constitutes the claim of individual freedom. I will try to expand on it, and try to show why this claim is of merit, and gives more reasons to have freedom, and not less.

Also, freedom is not a uni-dimensional entity. I not only propose the freedom of individuals in a political sense (freedom of speech, thought, etc.), but also vehemently support the freedom of individuals to pick their own careers, to pick their own religions, and other things of that sort.

Every individual knows what is best for himself/herself

Before elaborating on this, let’s ask- what exactly is oneself? What exactly are you? Well, you are the controller of your consciousness, but there are many things within your consciousness that you are unaware of. Your intestines continuously digest food, your heart constantly pumps blood, and your livers constantly detoxify your body, without the slightest hint of your control. So there ARE some parts of you that are you, but are outside of your control.

This bring us to the question, what exactly is it about our lives that we can control NOW, THIS MOMENT. Well, it’s definitely neither or past nor present, because both of these have already happened. So, we can definitely influence our future, because that is something that has not happened as of yet.

Then, let’s ask- what exactly is it that you need to know about the direction you are heading, in order to assess the quality of your future? Well, you certainly need an aim. Now, what is the spectrum of possible aims? It is very, very large. You can pick financial security, and tread along predictable paths of life, in search of guaranteed outcomes that you know are most likely going to manifest themselves, either because almost everyone treads along that path with some degree of success, or because the path consists of stable and secure careers, that are probably predictable, but guarantee some form of return. You can also be the type that increases the range of possible outcomes, in order to target outcomes that manifest themselves into tremendous success, while risking potential catastrophes/failure, e.g. investing into an ambitious startup project. Like these, there are countless aims, both temporary and long term, that one can choose from in their lives. The question then becomes, are all these aims good? And the answer is, definitely no. We have to accept that there are truly malevolent people out there, who deeply want to inflict suffering to others, sometimes to further their selfish interests, and their aims are in direct synchrony with their devilish attitudes. Some aims are simply misguided, either due to a naive understanding of the world (”I’ll set out to fix the world”), or due to less-than-optimum company, which may distort our perception of the world, either due to peer pressure or due to the indulging in collective foolishness(a good example is the hipster movement of the 60s and 70s, which encouraged people to drop out of college, supposedly to show how “cool and rebellious against the system” they are). Some people simply don’t have an aim, either because they are facing a serious dilemma in their lives(to settle down or to focus on my career), because they are suffering from depression, or because they have not yet come to terms with what kind of a person they really are, and where they want to go in their lives. 

The validity of claims is a different issue, but if one thing is clear from this, it is that there sure are a SHIT TON of ways to be happy. One can rest peacefully knowing that they have a daily job as a bank accountant, and a lovely family to get home to, while some people find meaning in being indie game developers and turning their childhood passion for games into an actual career. Some simply prefer being at home cooking meals and playing with their children and watching them grow from little bundles of joy into responsible, mature human beings, while some get a kick out of working their asses off to get $150,000+ a year and not being burdened by the responsibilities that come with settling down with a family.

The reason freedom matters is that there are possibly an infinite modes of being that will generate happiness as an output for you, and it is you, out of all people on Earth, that has the best idea of your neurology in order to figure out what exactly your optimum modes of being are. 

This, of course, is not a widely accepted idea, especially in South Asian communities, where the persistence insistence to be either a doctor or engineer rings irritably in the ears of millions of teenagers and, sadly, even children, who are burdened with the obligation to pick the career of their parents’ choice way before they can figure out what actually is good for them.

The reason this is the case, is that in societies where the middle-class make up the bulk of the population, financial distress is a key factor in the mental processes of adults. Doctors and engineers are respectable professions that pay a hefty sum of money to their occupants, and so are enough for paying the bills and securing a safe life.

But the problem is that your parents may simply be wrong regarding your future, because their optimum mode of being and yours (i.e. the mode of being that generates happiness for that individual) may not only be different, but may also be extremely foreign to one another, because the aims associated with that mode of being may be completely different than the aims associated with the mode of being your parents may want you to aspire to. Sure, a doctor may be rich, but for that career to be fulfilling, your aims really have to be to sacrifice yourself to the good of others, and to spend lots and lots of years studying in order to reap the fruits of your hard work many years later. But that simply may not be your cup of tea. You may want to be at the edge of danger and risk by opening a new importing company, or an online retailer. You may want to satisfy your artistic urges by becoming a painter and selling your drawings. This mismatch of optimum modes of being, and the enforcement of young people to live the mode of being preferred by their parents, is the source of countless resentfully spent lives, anger-and-dissatisfaction-driven abuse, and even helpless suicides.

A beautiful movie that portrays the benefits of aligning your actions with your aims is 3 Idiots, a Hindi Movie starring Aamir Khan, who plays the character of Ranchor Das, a university student who fulfills his dream of studying engineering. The movie is about Ranchor, his two friends, Farhan and Raju,  and their endeavors, pranks and their friendship, sadness, helplessness, love, happiness, musings in a world that values financial security over the following of one’s passion. The movie is really good, and I highly recommend watching it. But the movie has a far deeper meaning, as the main character, Ranchor, is really a mythological representation of the best that can happen to you when your actions are perfectly aligned with your aims. Throughout the movie, Ranchor remains focused, and is never bogged down by stress. He radiates a positive aura throughout the duration of the movie, and is never in fear of what the future has in store. This is the ideal state of a person who clearly knows what they want, and is actively working, and allowed to work, to materialize a future based on their optimum mode of being, in the sense that the person clearly knows what they are heading to, so the future is certain, and relatively free of unpredictability, especially unwanted predictability. The person is given an added dose of motivation and determination because they are pursuing what they truly want in life, so they are less likely to be overwhelmed by what they are doing. This is especially relatable to students who have been forced to study a subject in university they never liked, which makes everything that much harder. The person is always in absolute readiness to face what is ahead because he likes the path forward, so the body and the mind are in absolute harmony, which causes increased positivity and a decrease in meaninglessness and cynicism. All of these ideals are portrayed by Ranchor, which is why it makes the character that much more likable, which is proof for the fact that the allowance of freedom in an individual’s life is also helpful for a person’s social prospects, because the person is surrounded by like-minded people who share their same passions.

There’s a war of ideas going on in the Western world, as there should be. As abundance, automation, and technology is frees up more and more time for the general masses, while simultaneously threatening to topple over the very building blocks of society (employment being an obvious one), it is leaving humans with a lot of time on their hands to really think thoroughly about the lenses they use to view and verify reality. It is easy to gauge why such discussions did not take place in the historical past to the extent that they are taking place today. Even in 1895, when the Industrial Revolution had tightened its grasp on the daily lives of commoners, the average person lived on less than a dollar a day, below the UN’s threshold for abject poverty. This is really a testament to the fact that even until recently, the world constituted absolutely terrible suffering for its inhabitants. History is a teary, bloody mess, filled with disease, terror, hardship, infidelity, discrimination, and every possible hammer to your state of being that one can imagine. So it’s understandable that philosophical conversations were scarce in a world where people tried their absolute best simply to live to see the next day and to ensure their families did so.

But it is different now. At least far better than it used to be. The sheer number of scientific discoveries and advancements that got us to where we are today is huge, and can fill up libraries upon libraries of densely packed books, as it rightfully does so today. But the end result of it is something we live through everyday and don’t really appreciate to the extent we should- we are living exponentially better lives with access to healthcare, education, liberty, leisure, luxury, and other amenities that our ancestors could not even imagine would exist in heaven. Even though it is not the case for everyone, things surely are great, and will only get better as time goes by.

For the majority of history, humans have battled hard- with their own nature, with the cruel forces of inadequacy and with other people, and have lived short and grueling lives under ruthless circumstances to fulfill their physical needs and wants. When your daily income was less than a dollar a day, and your life depended on the mercy of the local landlord, and on the hesitation of neighboring conquerors, there was not much you could do to ensure a livelihood, other than to live by the dictates of your superiors, and hard did the nobility make the commoners work. From churches to cathedrals to mansions to statues, all was the fruit of the blood and sweat of the peasants, but the property of the kings and the emperors and the merchants. In return, they got barely enough food (enough to live, if one was willing to forego one or two meals a day), livable shelters (livable being the overstatement of the century), and the permission to live. Well, that was all the proletariat could really ask for without having their throats slit by the cold metal of the swords of the bourgeoisie.

Something must have happened in the last 300 years, that must have caused the radical transformation of society from a hellish den of chaotic, pitiless torture to a peaceful mountain top overlooking the vast expanse of potential and well-being. Something must have happened to liberate people, by the billions, from the iron shackles of helplessness, despair, and suffering. Something must have happened to condense, into around three centuries, the progress that people imagined to be spread over countless eons. And to find that something, we have to look no further than the Enlightenment, to the likes of John Locke, Adam Smith, and other liberated minds. These people were at the forefront of a new way of life. A way of life, which made possible the most significant improvement in human well-being in the entire history of Homo Sapiens. 

Separating and dissecting the tenets that propelled the Enlightenment, the most fundamental idea that all their work possessed was a semi-religious emphasis on the importance of  the freedom of the individuals to live their lives by their own accord, without being restricted by the dictates of the collective, of the tribe, or of the government. It was this focus on the sovereignty of the individual that was the foundation of the work of John Locke, his legendary declaration that “all individuals own themselves”, and the bulk of Adam Smith’s “The Wealth of Nations”, the Bible of the capitalist school of thought, that was, and continues to be to this date, the biggest liberator of individuals across the social spectrum from the lottery of their birth. A society that values the sovereignty of the individual is one that gives people the ability to turn their lives around and transform their fates by the virtues of hard work and personal responsibility. It is one that truly frees individuals from cultural pressures, from differences in upbringing, and from the age-old iron weight of taboo and stigma.

All of this sounds prophetic, but prophetic declarations are not even close to being enough to lift around 90% of the world out of debilitating starvation, harrowing illiteracy and frighteningly low lifespans. There is, of course, a single foundational assumption about the nature of individuals that constitutes the claim of individual freedom. I will try to expand on it, and try to show why this claim is of merit, and gives more reasons to have freedom, and not less.

Also, freedom is not a uni-dimensional entity. I not only propose the freedom of individuals in a political sense (freedom of speech, thought, etc.), but also vehemently support the freedom of individuals to pick their own careers, to pick their own religions, and other things of that sort.

Every individual knows what is best for himself/herself

Before elaborating on this, let’s ask- what exactly is oneself? What exactly are you? Well, you are the controller of your consciousness, but there are many things within your consciousness that you are unaware of. Your intestines continuously digest food, your heart constantly pumps blood, and your livers constantly detoxify your body, without the slightest hint of your control. So there ARE some parts of you that are you, but are outside of your control.

This bring us to the question, what exactly is it about our lives that we can control NOW, THIS MOMENT. Well, it’s definitely neither or past nor present, because both of these have already happened. So, we can definitely influence our future, because that is something that has not happened as of yet.

Then, let’s ask- what exactly is it that you need to know about the direction you are heading, in order to assess the quality of your future? Well, you certainly need an aim. Now, what is the spectrum of possible aims? It is very, very large. You can pick financial security, and tread along predictable paths of life, in search of guaranteed outcomes that you know are most likely going to manifest themselves, either because almost everyone treads along that path with some degree of success, or because the path consists of stable and secure careers, that are probably predictable, but guarantee some form of return. You can also be the type that increases the range of possible outcomes, in order to target outcomes that manifest themselves into tremendous success, while risking potential catastrophes/failure, e.g. investing into an ambitious startup project. Like these, there are countless aims, both temporary and long term, that one can choose from in their lives. The question then becomes, are all these aims good? And the answer is, definitely no. We have to accept that there are truly malevolent people out there, who deeply want to inflict suffering to others, sometimes to further their selfish interests, and their aims are in direct synchrony with their devilish attitudes. Some aims are simply misguided, either due to a naive understanding of the world (”I’ll set out to fix the world”), or due to less-than-optimum company, which may distort our perception of the world, either due to peer pressure or due to the indulging in collective foolishness(a good example is the hipster movement of the 60s and 70s, which encouraged people to drop out of college, supposedly to show how “cool and rebellious against the system” they are). Some people simply don’t have an aim, either because they are facing a serious dilemma in their lives(to settle down or to focus on my career), because they are suffering from depression, or because they have not yet come to terms with what kind of a person they really are, and where they want to go in their lives. 

The validity of claims is a different issue, but if one thing is clear from this, it is that there sure are a SHIT TON of ways to be happy. One can rest peacefully knowing that they have a daily job as a bank accountant, and a lovely family to get home to, while some people find meaning in being indie game developers and turning their childhood passion for games into an actual career. Some simply prefer being at home cooking meals and playing with their children and watching them grow from little bundles of joy into responsible, mature human beings, while some get a kick out of working their asses off to get $150,000+ a year and not being burdened by the responsibilities that come with settling down with a family.

The reason freedom matters is that there are possibly an infinite modes of being that will generate happiness as an output for you, and it is you, out of all people on Earth, that has the best idea of your neurology in order to figure out what exactly your optimum modes of being are. 

This, of course, is not a widely accepted idea, especially in South Asian communities, where the persistence insistence to be either a doctor or engineer rings irritably in the ears of millions of teenagers and, sadly, even children, who are burdened with the obligation to pick the career of their parents’ choice way before they can figure out what actually is good for them.

The reason this is the case, is that in societies where the middle-class make up the bulk of the population, financial distress is a key factor in the mental processes of adults. Doctors and engineers are respectable professions that pay a hefty sum of money to their occupants, and so are enough for paying the bills and securing a safe life.

But the problem is that your parents may simply be wrong regarding your future, because their optimum mode of being and yours (i.e. the mode of being that generates happiness for that individual) may not only be different, but may also be extremely foreign to one another, because the aims associated with that mode of being may be completely different than the aims associated with the mode of being your parents may want you to aspire to. Sure, a doctor may be rich, but for that career to be fulfilling, your aims really have to be to sacrifice yourself to the good of others, and to spend lots and lots of years studying in order to reap the fruits of your hard work many years later. But that simply may not be your cup of tea. You may want to be at the edge of danger and risk by opening a new importing company, or an online retailer. You may want to satisfy your artistic urges by becoming a painter and selling your drawings. This mismatch of optimum modes of being, and the enforcement of young people to live the mode of being preferred by their parents, is the source of countless resentfully spent lives, anger-and-dissatisfaction-driven abuse, and even helpless suicides.

A beautiful movie that portrays the benefits of aligning your actions with your aims is 3 Idiots, a Hindi Movie starring Aamir Khan, who plays the character of Ranchor Das, a university student who fulfills his dream of studying engineering. The movie is about Ranchor, his two friends, Farhan and Raju,  and their endeavors, pranks and their friendship, sadness, helplessness, love, happiness, musings in a world that values financial security over the following of one’s passion. The movie is really good, and I highly recommend watching it. But the movie has a far deeper meaning, as the main character, Ranchor, is really a mythological representation of the best that can happen to you when your actions are perfectly aligned with your aims. Throughout the movie, Ranchor remains focused, and is never bogged down by stress. He radiates a positive aura throughout the duration of the movie, and is never in fear of what the future has in store. This is the ideal state of a person who clearly knows what they want, and is actively working, and allowed to work, to materialize a future based on their optimum mode of being, in the sense that the person clearly knows what they are heading to, so the future is certain, and relatively free of unpredictability, especially unwanted predictability. The person is given an added dose of motivation and determination because they are pursuing what they truly want in life, so they are less likely to be overwhelmed by what they are doing. This is especially relatable to students who have been forced to study a subject in university they never liked, which makes everything that much harder. The person is always in absolute readiness to face what is ahead because he likes the path forward, so the body and the mind are in absolute harmony, which causes increased positivity and a decrease in meaninglessness and cynicism. All of these ideals are portrayed by Ranchor, which is why it makes the character that much more likable, which is proof for the fact that the allowance of freedom in an individual’s life is also helpful for a person’s social prospects, because the person is surrounded by like-minded people who share their same passions.

His heart pumped blood profusely as he stood by the edge of the cliff, caught in a dilemma that would either make or break him for good. As the roaring waters made violent splashes against the abrading rocks down below, he tried to decide between confronting the sheer magnitude of the height, or giving in to the soulless creatures, who may have already began their expedition in search of their lost hostage. The milky white figure of Uniqueness stood beside him, watching droplets of sweat roll down his forehead onto his cheeks, and then dropping into the wet soil below. “Mortal,” spoke Uniqueness, “you do not have much time left to make your choice.” But for him, each second seemed to bear the impact of a thousand years. The choice was hard. He was going to make a jump down a cliff, which, he heard from childhood, was one “from where all the bad and disrespectful ones jumped.” Although he knew he was making a right choice, he also knew that making this jump was the equivalent of disowning himself from his own kind for eternity. It meant making a choice no one had ever made in generations, but then again his kind wasn’t the one for change, anyways. As he tried not to get lost in his thoughts and think calmly, his ears were constantly deafened by the shrieking noise of the majestic waterfall, its water falling down the cliff and making a huge thud on the ground, some crashing with the rocks, some escaping into a rock-clad stream that continued downwards. But he also heard, that after all those hurdles, there would come an eternal spring, with water so warm and so refreshing that it would make you forget every other concern in the world. It would be so surreal, so relieving, that it would make the waterfall and the deadly stream seem like baby steps. But he could never see the spring, nor could he today, so he asked Uniqueness, “Is there really a spring down there? Should I make this impactful a choice based on something that may as well be a myth? ”

 “The spring,” replied Uniqueness, “comes only to those daring enough to make the jump.”

As he was staring downwards, he could hear the noise. “They have found you,” said Uniqueness, “but you still have time.” As he looked around, far down the forest path, he could see multitudes of figures sprinting down the path, and they were in millions, as if the whole of their kind had come to stop one person from making “the jump”. They all looked the some, with an empty hollow where their soul should have been, and rusty shackles around their brains. Their dull, yellow eyes could not be seen, but he remembered them very clearly, him being used to them staring down at him whenever he tried to get out of their sphere of authority. He figured there would be one figure among them, more normal than the others, and more prominent from the distance-his Physics teacher. He closed his eyes and remembered:

“HEY, YOU!” shouted the Physics teacher, “You do this sum by MY METHOD! Who the hell gave you the permission to use your own made up method to do this sum?” “But sir,” he said, “the answer is still corr-” “ARE YOU GONNA TEACH ME HOW TO DO THIS SUM?” he shot back, “You may as well write the correct answer from the back of your book and say the answer is still correct!” “Sir, the method is sti-” he tried to defend himself, but his sir would hear no more, “THAT’S ENOUGH! GET OUT OF THE CLASS!”

As he remembered this, he wondered how many other times he had been kicked around for doing things his own way. He was really tempted to believe that the spring did exist, and that there was really a way to free himself from this claustrophobic grid called society. He asked himself, was this the moment he had been waiting for? A moment where he would stand in front of an Exit Door, and make a decision whose outcome nobody could dictate to him? A moment where everyone would come running towards him, unable to control him in any way whatsoever, and helpless to his autonomy? And if that was the case, he had little time to make it worthwhile, because the group of lifeless creatures running towards him were now audible to him, and he could hear them shouting out words of warning and phrases of persuasion. “If you want to stay with this wretched kind,” said Uniqueness, still calm and composed, “you may as well turn back now.”

The winds blew harder how, sending the surrounding trees into shaking fits, and elevating the fallen leaves and shrubs from the ground. He wondered whether a tornado was coming, but more importantly, he wondered what the outcome of this standoff between him and everyone else would be. He looked around again, and he saw two faces in the distance, ones which he had expected to see-his parents:

“Mom,” he said, “I don’t wanna be a doctor. It’s just not my passion.” “Listen dear,” his mother replied, “remember Suzy, our neighbor’s daughter? She just came out of med school with a degree. Works in her own clinic, and earns a ton of money.” “But,” he replied, “Economics has always been my passion, and I haven’t understood a thing of science since Grade 7.” “Are we having this discussion again?” interrupted his father. “It’s final, and we mean it. You are going to med school.” “WILL YOU NOW EVEN DICTATE WHAT I WILL DO IN THE FUTURE?” he shot back. His father gave him a look of sheer anger. He got up, did not say a word, and slapped him in the face. “I say what you do. And you’re going to med school.”

The sky was now turning to a shade of brownish golden, the clouds blocking the rays of the evening sun. He was now shaking, both out of fear and confusion. He had a minute to make a choice. And he could not take it without assurance.

“Uniqueness,” he asked, “why did you specifically bring ME to this cliff, out of all people? What made me so special?”

Uniqueness laughed, and answered,“Because you never realized that you have an unshackled brain and a soul in place of a hollow.”

The skies started spilling rain on the surface of the world, and heavy rain ensued afterwards. The voices of the creatures, nor the sound of lightning, could shake him out of his realization. His hand reached out to his head, and instead of feeling metal, he felt rough skin. He always thought he was different from the rest, and he could feel the rebellion that resided deep within him. He now felt more confident, and he started thinking that maybe, he was destined to make this jump. And suddenly, his fearlessness took over his conformity to societal standards.

“You have little time,” Uniqueness said, as it witnessed the change in his expression. “you have to decide whether you write your own faith, or you let them write it for you.”

He didn’t know whether a Spring existed at the end, but he realized that a good outcome wasn’t necessary to make the journey worthwhile.