For a few seconds all of us were shocked watching the traffic behind us stopped 15 yards back amazed at the scene. We got out of the car and made sure that everything was alright. Everything was fine, the car didn't even get a scratch and neither did any of us.
Consider the fact that there was traffic from the other way (without any separator), there was traffic following us, the traffic we were following and there was the left boundary of the bridge (bridge being over 50 ft above the ground beneath), and our car being out of control. How much was the probability of: the car not touching anything, not even getting a small scratch? Was it luck? Generally, everyone would say that it was our good luck that we survived, let aside the fact that there was not a single scratch on the car or on any one of us. Let's examine a few details:
- What's the biological reason behind the fact that Omar's reflexes worked perfectly? Maybe he ate something that helped him or maybe he ate nothing. Or maybe he had pretty good sleep, maybe he didn't had a fight with someone, maybe his concentration on the driving was wonderful. Details!
- What if the architect of the bridge planned it the way that it had only 1 lane for each side? Details!
- The traffic behind us stopped, they looked like pretty educated people. The same people would probably have collided with us from behind if they weren't educated people. They may have gotten education from an institution built years back by some person. That person would probably had worked hard to earn that money. He might have spent that same money on something else. Details!
- I am pretty sure something else would have happened if it were raining. Luck! Good luck!
We are a part of the system and the events that occur produce some output and trigger something which might be the input for any other event, and there are thousands of factors involving in the triggering and the execution of an event. We, as humans don't have enough processing power and memory that we can take into account even 5% of the factors and thus ignore the rest. Generally, we term these ignored factors, these details as luck. If the factors sum up to be positive for someone, they term it as good luck and when they turn out to be negative it's called bad luck.
In other words, the more detail we know the less usage of the word luck and the lesser the detail the more the usage of this word.
I don't agree with the general perception or the usage of the word luck, or for that matter the concept taken about it. The point is that luck is there, but not everything unknown is luck to us; only those factors which cannot be controlled by a human being at that point in time, such as the speed of wind, the tide of sea, the clouds, the amount of oil in an oil well, the running of time, etc. can be taken as luck. On the other hand, the amount of pollution, the number of trees, the profit in business (mostly), the questions in exam, prediction of the amount of oil in a well, etc. are all details and can be controlled to some extent by us.
Simultaneously speaking, if one human being can control something doesn't mean that other human being can do it as well e.g. a mechanic cannot control an aeroplane if he doesn't know about flying. Moreover, if he flies one with hundreds of passengers and crashes, it is not bad luck for the hurt. On the other hand, it can happen that the best pilot in the world might crash a plane if the weather becomes unlimitedly harsh. We can term it bad luck.
I had been thinking about this for a long time and there is no input taken from anything else except for a discussion or two with a friend. Hence, one may or may not agree to this perception, any ideas are most welcome.
Posts
11 comments:
Splendid!
I was part of this luck VS Details.
We didnt know what happened till the car start to spin it took a 180 degree turn and stop facing the cars behind us (now they are in front of us) and the amazing thing was they were all lined up as if waiting for race to start and no horns were blowing ...
Back in 2000, the group that aimed to win 11th All Pakistan AQ Khan Software Competition (Safri, Imran Saeed, Qasim Ijaz and me) worked very hard. The architecture, design and the feature set were too good to be expected from a bunch of students. A three tier architecture with XML based communication between the front-end and COM layer with a very rich feature set!
We were running short of time (had been busy with exams) and just a day before our flights to Islamabad, we started integrating things.
But every now and then, we faced strange problems. For example, the day we started integrating, the machine on which we were working, its mouse stopped working. Imran Saeed's home was the closest. He was sent and asked to bring some CDs as well. He brougt the CDs but forgot to bring the mouse!
As we integrated we came to know that we had not standardized on any CSS. Thus, it just looked as if two web applications have been copied in a single folder!
To cut the long story short, despite all the efforts, we lost the competition. In fact, we were not even in the list of mentionable projects! There had been some factors which we could have controlled and I was very annoyed because of this. For example, if you send someone to bring a mouse, he SHOULD bring a mouse. Similarly, it's NOT A GOOD IDEA to copy all the data on a single floppy disk and expect it to work (one group member did this for his part of the project).
When we came back to Karachi, I initiated a discussion on what went wrong and what we could do about it. Actually, I didn't want this team to break up. I wanted open discussion instead of keeping things in your heart. I wanted us to get ready for bigger challenges like joining the same company after graduation. But this initiation of discussion back-fired. I got a very threatening and sort-of-abusive email from Ali Safri, who is one of the most cool and mild tempered persons I have ever met. Qasim Ijaz shouted at us in one of the meetings and said that he would never sit with us. And if you know Qasim Ijaz, this guy doesn't even talk much - what to say of expecting him to shout!
All this speaks of how disappointed we were! I started thinking of this dumbness vs. bad luck issue then. It was not clear to me whether we should call it bad luck or was it due to our own mistakes. I promised myself that one day I'd find it out.
A few months later, the Procom event was organized at FAST Karachi. I carefully listed down all the mistakes we had made; I re-wrote almost 50% of the thing. I even dropped out of the ITIM Bizsol project (that was then done single-handedly by Ali Safri and he won second position in the competition).
I removed all chances of "not winning" to the best of my knowledge and ability. But guess what? I lost once again.
Aah, after many years, now I know how things work and what is the limit of human ability. I'd reflect more later. I just wanted to share my story in this comment.
I'd say that if you don't have a strong desire to be humble (which usually manifests itself in the form of dua, may it be from you or some well-wisher of yours) then usually the rules of Nature don't snatch the top position from you to make you humble. It has to be something else, though I can't say what.
And certainly whatever you do, there are hundreds of people better than you. In fact, they say that for many years, in the days of Samurais, even the strongest Japanese didn't attack anyone in the streets just because one never knows the capabilities of the opponent.
Salman, I must say your analytical differentiation between good and bad luck is too good; to the extent that the miracles given to the Prophets (AS) were actually knowledge/control of some unknown factors. Consider the splitting of water when Hazrat Musa (AS) crossed Nile and when Phraoah was doomed in the same river. At the miracle level, we understand the splitting up of water but at the physical level there has to happen something because this was a physical activity and not a dream/ illusion.
How many people would have believed you two centuries ago, if you had told them that there is motion within a static stone? Motion - which is one of the properties that differentiates living from non-living!
Here is a remark made by Achilles in Troy (yes, you CAN learn things from pointless movies as well): "I'll tell you a secret -- something they didn't teach you in your temple. The gods envy us. They envy us because we're mortal, because every moment might be our last. Everything is more beautiful for the doomed."
What I want to point out is that the we might never be able to know things to infinite level of detail and there is nothing wrong with it! The beauty of being human is tied with our mortality and the quest that goes in the opposite direction. How would life be if you could control everything or know everything to any desired level of detail? Perhaps, there will be no point in living then, which is another indicator that we might not ever achieve that level.
And needless is to say that we will kill ourselves with our own hands many years before achieving anything remarkable.
"off-topic"
Umar, maybe you are casual sometimes when seriousness is seriously needed and that might be the reason of not getting to #1. But, as far as giving your best shot and being highly motivated is concerned and still not achieving #1, you are missing something which you need to find out about, yourself. Maybe you have to act a bit smarter and result oriented :)
A friend once told me, "If you are (or want to be) #1 then you say it in public". If one claims so and announces then even if he's not #1 he'll have an adrenaline rush for the sake of supporting the claim. Of course, one has to be motivated for that.
"/off-topic"
Regarding knowing about details, yes that's the beauty of being a human being. E.g. If one predicts something on the basis of the least possible detail, isn't it an achievement? You are right in saying that if we get the ultimate power, it would be boring for us.
An example just to elaborate: I once used to play Sim City which is a business strategy game in which you have to govern a city. Initially, you don't have enough money to do whatever you want to, even if that's the need. But as you progress, you get money from taxes and thus start improving the city. Once, you have built the city and have enough resources to get it going and do "whatever you can", the charm, the attraction of the game is gone.
Same goes for every other thing.
I strongly believe that a human always have a number of options in any scenario that he comes across...each option leads to a series of consequences that are bound to follow...now if our relationship with the supreme authority is good/reasonable (depending upon, again, lots of factors which only He can judge)...v manage to make a right choice. I have even experienced that in such a case even if things SEEM to be wrong, are ultimately taken care of and are ACTUALLY for our benefit...provided v were on the right track or atleast intended to...
I think miracles still happen around us if we have the perception and insight to observe those. I perceive the same from time to time if not on regular basis. Observed people facing consequences of their wrong deeds within matter of hours if not days and months as well as people with good intentions taken care of from unseen sources.
As far as working hard and trying the utmost is concerned, its every 1's right and is highly appreciated by the supreme power but again if v want answers for every thing, sometimes v might not be able to take it and should accept our weakness and trust Him. However, answers are there all along only to be observed by the wise ones.
Well, I would not like to disagree but there are some finer points that are important. (the discussion is now turning towards human ability and choice rather than good vs bad luck)
Our ability to make something "happen" is testified by "repeatability." If you can't repeat it, you don't have the power over it - it's as simple as that.
Consider, for example, learning to ride a bicycle. While we are starters, we might be able to paddle a few times and steer it properly but it's not repeatable (as in by will). But once you learn you don't even give it a second thought.
And gradually we stop praying for things that are within our ability - do you pray before picking up, let's say, a glass of water. You know you can do it. On the other hand, there is no proof / no guarantee that you will be successful the next time you do it. Still, we base hundreds of things (we make huge plans) based on our assumptions about our abilities.
I am not saying that it's wrong not to pray for simple things (you can replace the word "pray" by "being shaky or lacking confidence" if you are not that religious). I just want to point towards the question, "why don't we pray for simple things?" A plausible answer is that simply because we know all the factors and we know how to handle it. More importantly, our experience has shown that the process/ task is "repeatable."
Again there is nothing wrong here. After all, you are the "vicegerent of Allah on Earth." How else do you interpret this ayat:
Behold, thy Lord said to the angels: "I will create a vicegerent on earth. They said: "Wilt Thou place therein one who will make mischief therein and shed blood? Whilst we do celebrate Thy praise and glorify Thy holy (name)?" He said, "I know what ye know not." (HQ 2:30)What is it that Allah knows about mankind that the angels didn't (or perhaps don't) know? Perhaps this quote attributed to Alphonse De Lamartine, is an indicator towards the answer:
Limited in his nature, infinite in his desires. Man is a fallen god who remembers heaven.
The same thing happened to me when I was driving my Suzuki Mehran some 7 years back. I seriously think there are some major control issues with this car when there are more than 2 passengers.
Post a Comment