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.