The end of the year provides a good excuse to reflect on the way forward. In my search for knowing the reasons behind a change of heart on the place to retire in after work, I stumbled upon my own narrative shift. That led me to thinking about signalling at large, and the impact it has on the lives we lead.
My models of interaction with the world at large has helped me convert many uncertainties into risks. But they are far from robust. I realise that I cannot completely control what is thrown at me, I have to build better framing for how to react to it. Maybe that’s the way to make the uncertain, simple.
Are we really objective when evaluating our own happiness? Maybe if one were really responding to a need, and not a want (driven by social validation or self image), one would be in the moment, and experience joy.
Tolstoy begins Anna Karenina with “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” A.J. Finn’s character in The Woman in the Window says that “No family, happy or unhappy, is quite like any other.” Who is right?
Our capacity to feel, imagine and visualise led us to abstractions which allowed us to communicate with each other. Even the idea of consciousness is an abstraction of complex neural interactions. Over time, abstractions have made their way into many spheres of our lives. What lies next?