The Dichotomy of Dreams

I am 25 at the time of writing this. With coming ages, like most people, my ability to be surprised and my instinct to explore will likely decrease. These characters are highest when we are children (think: a 5 year-old entering a room, looking around, and just... observing). Higher ages have their perks, like independence; which children lack. To be a child, and have adult like perks (think: a 5 year old driving a car),  is impossible. But, the other way, that is, to be an adult and have child like explorer-tendencies is possible, albeit tough.

The goal of this document is to remind myself (and few other readers) to not let the hopes, dreams and explorer-instincts die so easily with age.

 

Dreamy Coefficient

"What do you want to become in life?" is one of the first question that a human hears in her life-span, right around at the time of 2nd grade in schools. Because the recipients are usually young, the answers are diverse and hypothetical: astronaut, kite-flyer, ruler, king, unicorn (not the start-up kind), and what not. At this point, people want to do something revolutionary, unique... and likely not what their parents are doing.

Some years down the time, these hypothetical dreams shape into measurable and real ideas. Not all the measurable ideas are achievable though, and humans realize  this fact in next few years. Our dreams of Astronauts, Kite-flyers and Unicorns are now converted into Analysts, Engineers, Consultants, and Public Service Officials; these are not bad dreams either (no dream is bad per-se). This does not end here. With time, we move more towards elements like feasibility and ease; and away from elements of hopes. At some point in this graph, the `dreams` & `feasibility` strike the perfect balance, and that is what we become in life.

This point varies from person to person, and I like to call this Dreamy Coefficient, say μ. Higher Dreamy Coefficient implies that one achieves impossible things, like becoming a unicorn

 

Dreamy Coefficient and Time

I wanted to create a Doraemon-inspired time-machine inside my cupboard... and I genuinely believed it could be done. Such handsome was my μ. I made the calculations, dived into the cupboard, and ended up hurting myself, right in 2010! This blow reduced my μ a lot. With time, my  suffered more blows, albeit of lesser intensities. This happens with most of humans. This continuum should imply that our coefficient will keep on decreasing and should follow a deterministic curve, right?

It doesn't. If it were actually happening that way, humans wouldn't have made any discoveries. With wisdom, humans often challenge the natural decay of the of dreamy coefficient. This creates small spikes throughout the path, and it is at the peak of these spikes, the discoveries happen.

Conclusion

The dreams are bound to face the cross-winds of time, but luckily the increase in wisdom is almost always followed. Although rare, but one can actually harness the wisdom to power the sail, and take little detours in the search of unseen islands. Of-course, at 60, it will be tough to have the explorer-instinct & curiosity of a 5 year old, but inculcating even a fraction of it will create wonders.