One thing in life we have to admit, whether we like it or not, is that everything has consequences. Even if you do nothing, doing nothing itself will bring you consequences.
When I was younger, I saw it as the push of time because time was ticking without my consent, and I could not stop time from ticking and running. This was my first impression of the consequences because the pressure of time running correlates to my to-do list - I needed to attend lectures, revise, exercise, and hang out with friends - and how many tasks I could fit in a single day. What I did not notice until now is that the existence of these tasks themselves actually tells a lot about the consequences I wanted - attending lectures to take notes, revising to ace the exams, exercising to have that stimulant, hanging out with friends to have that company. I was absolutely aware of the consequences of the tasks, and this was why I tracked these tasks on my to-do list, not drawing or visiting the museum. I call this the aware consequence.
Aware consequences are boring stuff because the consequences are, most of the time, our goals. However, for unaware (unintended) consequences, we have a different story. We are now talking about the consequences that we are not aware of. I executed the mentioned tasks on my to-do list, but I was not aware of the unintended consequences - my day was too full and fixed that I could not even have a phone call with my family or the time just to do nothing and think about life. In this case, the unaware consequences stack up, and my relationship with my family grew so distant that I finally realized, for example.
The unaware consequences framework does not only work in productivity. It applies to life. If you wear beautiful clothes and feel good standing out from the crowd, it does not stop there. You may not be aware of the potential eyeballs or harassment you will receive. Is the crowd to blame? Maybe. Were you unaware of the consequences of such an outfit? Yes. But, come on, how could we predict the future? Shouldn’t we just live in the moment and be ourselves? No one knows what will happen tomorrow. I can only say this mindset is partially correct for a person with wisdom but absolutely correct for a person without.
We cannot predict what life brings us, but we all know there is a high chance tomorrow will be the same as today - the grocery price will be more or less the same, the supermarket will be at the same corner across the street, the internet will work, your MacBook will run properly, etc. This is why infrastructure and system is a fascinating invention of living organisms on earth. It allows us to create something more than our lives could afford. Think about language, text, art, or maybe the Stoicism that Seneca left us. If we exaggerate the uncertainty in life too much and use it as the cushion that we sit on and do nothing and scroll Instagram feed, it is just stupid.
When I was younger, I saw it as the push of time because time was ticking without my consent, and I could not stop time from ticking and running. This was my first impression of the consequences because the pressure of time running correlates to my to-do list - I needed to attend lectures, revise, exercise, and hang out with friends - and how many tasks I could fit in a single day. What I did not notice until now is that the existence of these tasks themselves actually tells a lot about the consequences I wanted - attending lectures to take notes, revising to ace the exams, exercising to have that stimulant, hanging out with friends to have that company. I was absolutely aware of the consequences of the tasks, and this was why I tracked these tasks on my to-do list, not drawing or visiting the museum. I call this the aware consequence.
Aware consequences are boring stuff because the consequences are, most of the time, our goals. However, for unaware (unintended) consequences, we have a different story. We are now talking about the consequences that we are not aware of. I executed the mentioned tasks on my to-do list, but I was not aware of the unintended consequences - my day was too full and fixed that I could not even have a phone call with my family or the time just to do nothing and think about life. In this case, the unaware consequences stack up, and my relationship with my family grew so distant that I finally realized, for example.
The unaware consequences framework does not only work in productivity. It applies to life. If you wear beautiful clothes and feel good standing out from the crowd, it does not stop there. You may not be aware of the potential eyeballs or harassment you will receive. Is the crowd to blame? Maybe. Were you unaware of the consequences of such an outfit? Yes. But, come on, how could we predict the future? Shouldn’t we just live in the moment and be ourselves? No one knows what will happen tomorrow. I can only say this mindset is partially correct for a person with wisdom but absolutely correct for a person without.
We cannot predict what life brings us, but we all know there is a high chance tomorrow will be the same as today - the grocery price will be more or less the same, the supermarket will be at the same corner across the street, the internet will work, your MacBook will run properly, etc. This is why infrastructure and system is a fascinating invention of living organisms on earth. It allows us to create something more than our lives could afford. Think about language, text, art, or maybe the Stoicism that Seneca left us. If we exaggerate the uncertainty in life too much and use it as the cushion that we sit on and do nothing and scroll Instagram feed, it is just stupid.