Life is made up of choices you make

You face a situation in life and you are suppose to make a decision. How you do it? There are many ways to see a situation. It completely depends on the person how he perceives the scenario and react as per the choice s/he might have. Here I am sharing with you a small incident that happened few days back in an interview with a friend. He is a software engineer and was being interviewed for a senior position. You all must be aware that as a software engineer you must be good at logic and so he was. I have seen some of his exceptional coding. So, the interviewer (let’s call him Satyam) asked my friend (Ajay – name changed) if he was good at logic.

Ajay: I guess so. I have some of my work for your consideration.

Satyam: Let me test you. Two men come down a chimney. One comes with a clean face and other comes with a dirty face. Which one would wash his face?

Now, before going any further, who would you think will wash his face?

Let’s continue…

So, Ajay inquired if that is question of logic and Satyam nodded in agreement.

Ajay: Its simple, the one with dirty face washes his face.

Satyam: No, the one with clean face washes his face.

Ajay: With no offence how can that be logical.

Satyam: Look, man with dirty face sees the man with clean face and thinks his face is clean. Man with clean face sees the man with dirty face and thinks his face is dirty. So, man with clean face washes his face.

Now, did you also think the same like Ajay? If yes then you need to think more.

Ajay was stunned by the logic and he asked Satyam to test him again.

Satyam: Ok! Let me test you again. Two men come down a chimney. One comes with a clean face and other comes with a dirty face. Which one would wash his face?

Ajay couldn’t hide his frustration and said, “We have just established the fact that one with clean face washes his face first.”

Satyam: Wrong. You are not bringing in your logic. Each one washes one’s face. Examine the simple logic. Man with dirty face sees the man with clean face and thinks his face is clean. Man with clean face sees the man with dirty face and thinks his face is dirty. So, man with clean face washes his face. Man with dirty face sees the man with clean face and he also washes his face. So, each one washes one’s face.

Was that really hard to think of that logic? In life also many times we are faced with situations where we think of solutions as per the choice we have but stop there and don’t make a rush into decision. There might be other things which can broaden the scope of solution.

Ajay couldn’t believe that he was not able to put in logic and asked Satyam to test him again and Satyam raised his two fingers and asked, “Two men come down a chimney. One comes with a clean face and other comes with a dirty face. Which one would wash his face?”

Ajay: Each ones washes one’s face.

Satyam: Wrong again Ajay. Neither one washes his face. Examine this simple logic. Man with dirty face sees the man with clean face and thinks his face is clean. Man with clean face sees the man with dirty face and thinks his face is dirty. But when one with clean face sees that the one with dirty face doesn’t wash his face, he also doesn’t wash his face. So, neither one washes his face.

As you can now clearly see that there is no single solution to a particular question unless you are solving a mathematics problem. In life, we can have multiple solutions to the same problem. What’s needed is the ability to think of choices that we can have. Logically, life is very simple with answers in the problems itself.

So, our Ajay now desperately said that he was qualified for the job, asked for another chance. This one thing we all do when we make a wrong choice and there is no harm in doing it.

Give me some sunshine, give me some rain. 

Give me another chance; I wanna grow up once again.

Ajay groans when Satyam again lifts his two fingers, “Two men come down a chimney. One comes with a clean face and other comes with a dirty face. Which one would wash his face?”

Ajay: I have learnt the logic now. Neither one washes his face,

Satyam: Wrong again. Do see now Ajay, why programming knowledge is insufficient for this job? Examine this logic. How can two men come down the same chimney and for one to come out clean face and other with dirty face? Don’t you see the flaw?

P.S. Share in comments who you thought will wash his face.

P.P.S.

Change is Nature

“Change is nature. The part of which we can influence and it starts when we decide.”

- Ratatouille

A curious scientist did an experiment on a frog to understand the impact of change in frog’s environment. She boiled some water in a pot and put a frog in hot water. Frog immediately jumped out of pot. Now, she took an empty pot and heated it and put the frog in it and again the result was same. Then she put the frog in a pot filled with cold water and started heating the pot. At first, frog started to feel warm and cosy and was enjoying its new environment. Then as the heat started to take its effect frog started feeling uncomfortable but still it tried to adjust to changing environment and again started enjoying this change for some time. This went on for some time as she was heating the pot at a very slow rate. After some time as the temperature of water rise significantly frog tried to jump out of water but it could not take the leap. She concluded that with sudden change in environment frog immediately took the best way out. As the environment was changing slowly frog started to adjust and enjoy the comfort and with significant change in temperature frog started to adjust with much more commitment but when the temperature became unbearable and frog could not jump out as it had lost all its strength while adjusting to the changing environment.

How often in our life we come across situations, where we already know the end results but still we move swiftly towards the destiny. I know that this journey will not lead me to reach the purpose of my life but still I am moving on this path which I already know that will leave me in the middle of nowhere. The question you should ask yourself is "What’s stopping me to choose my destiny path?"

When I started my career, my manager told me, Mohit this company never kicks anyone out and you will enjoy doing job here. Always remember that if you are going to enjoy your job then one day you will get frustrated but if you will enjoy your work you will learn new skills which will help you grow. I still thank that person for giving me that wise piece of advice which is making my life better every day.

One thing that everyone one should remember that change is inevitable and nothing is permanent. If there is sadness, there is happiness and sadness will change to happiness when you will jump from that pot of sadness into the world of happiness. You have to remove the constraint of what is stopping you to reach your desired result. No one is miserable and everyone has choices to make, so does you. Always remember if you cannot change your environment, change you environment.

P.S. Whether you think you can or you cannot, you are always right.

P.P.S. Do share this post to let others know that you embrace the change around you.