Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Ctrl - Z for life

So how many times have you said something, only to regret later ? How many times have you faced a situation where a tough decision needs to be taken ? I have often thought that a Ctrl-Z option (undo for the uninitiated) would be the perfect solution. When writing something on a computer, do you really care that whatever you are doing will spoil the existing work ? Ctrl-Z makes you fearless, making lions out of meek mice. Dont worry keep typing ... keep that keyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy pressed and see what happens. Dont like the results ? Undo, as simple as that.

So, you are not sure what something should look like ? Simple. Just try out all your options, save as different files and compare. No pain at all. It should not be much of a problem to map this model to our lives...

In school, when the choice is between streams, do I want to be a doctor or a CA ? A journalist or an engineer ? So we choose one, secure in our choice that we could come back and start over. Of course, you might end up disliking all the options, which doesnt help matters, but that would stop all thoughts like ... what if I had done XYZ ? We you did do XYZ and found that it sucked too!

Such an option may have unintended consequences. When everyone starts turning the clock, funny things may happen. Actions do not occur in isolation and are the sum of the actions performed by all the actors. If any two of them try to separately undo their actions, something very different might happen. When editing a file, there is only one person doing the editing and not a whole bunch of people pounding away on the keyboard at the same time.

The charm of life lies in its uncertainities. We have the freedom to do whatever we want to, but the consequences are usually beyond our control. If we already knew everything that was to be known, where would the thrill of discovery be ?

I guess there is a pretty good reason why things are the way they are.

6 Comments:

Blogger Some said...

When it comes to life, there is really nothing stopping us expect our mental blocks which stop us from doing the ctrl-Z. If there is a choice that you made which is truly bothering you, and it feels like you can't life with it ... go ahead and press ctrl - Z :-).

2:21 pm  
Blogger Atish said...

i dont think u can do a ctrl-z with life... u cant totally erase it off as if it never existed... u can, as caliguliminix pointed out, get above ur mental block and move ahead in life, taking a new path.. but to me in the final word doc that is ur life... everything will be there :)

11:43 pm  
Blogger Atish said...

and ... thats why life is so much more interesting than preparing docs :)(i hope u get the context :D)

11:43 pm  
Blogger sunny said...

Wish there was a Ctrl-z. Nice thought, I'm still admiring the idea, what all I would have done undone using this option:D.

12:43 am  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

haha... reminds me of harry potter - if u remember hermione's time-turner (or whatever that was called..)
and have you seen the eternal sunshine of the spotless mind? i think u just may find that it clicks :D

9:41 pm  
Blogger Ankit Gupta said...

Maybe the "undo" ctrlZ is missing in life. But we have a very powerful "suspend" ctrlZ available. Suspend a running job and go to sleep :D

12:25 am  

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