Where is Enough???
Enough as a concept is quite mischievous. Oxford defines "enough"- as “as much or as many as required." But what exactly is required? and who determines what would be enough. I bet if you go back a century, you will find people awestruck by the device that we hold in our hands like it is one of our organs.
Yes, you guessed it right.
Our cellular mobile phones. A century ago, humans would say, If only we had such devices, that would be enough. Imagine the number of disasters that could have been avoided or would have had totally diffrent outcomes if only cell phones existed a century and a half ago.
The Titanic: The sinking of the Titanic in 1912 was considered one of the deadliest maritime disasters in history, killing more than 1,500 people. If the world had cellular phones then, the Titanic could have communicated with other nearby ships and alerted them of its distress. The passengers could have also contacted their families and friends and said their final goodbyes.
The Chernobyl nuclear accident: The Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine exploded in 1986, releasing radioactive material into the atmosphere. The Soviet authorities tried to cover up the accident and delayed evacuating the nearby towns. The lack of information and communication led to confusion and panic among the public and the workers. Although cellular phones were already invented by then, their proliferation was next to none. The people affected by the accident could have received timely warnings and instructions from the authorities. The workers could have also coordinated better and reported the situation more accurately. I bet people then would have said it would be enough to just hold a normal cell phone that would have allowed them to communicate effectively and nothing fancy like what we hold today.
But where are we today when it comes to phones? Our smartphones are more powerful than the computers NASA once used to send astronauts to the moon. But is it enough?
I don't think so.
Forget about being able to just talk; through the power of the internet, we can see each other live while talking. But the heart yearns for more. This is where Meta comes in with their big glasses, which allow you to interact with others in a completely different virtual world. What after? Will we develop technologies that would allow us to say, "Scotty, beam me up" and transport ourselves to any place we want instantly? What a world it would be!
Morgan Houssle writes about "how to stop your goal post from moving” In the most basic sense, all it means is to stop comparing oneself to others and rather focus on the internal benchmarks you have developed for yourself. Easier said than done. Forget about technological advancement for a moment; our goalpost keeps moving in pretty much every aspect of our lives. We want the fastest car, the biggest house, and the most comfortable bed if they exist. I had already written about this constant moving wheel made of money in my post, "Never Settle." What I focused on, like others, was this hedonistic journey we are all running on.
But lately, I have realized that defining enough is not only difficult when the times are good, but enough is hard to stop even when the times are bad.
Harry Houdini, the greatest magician and escape artist of his century, would routinely invite the audience up on his stage and ask them to throw a punch in his gut. To showcase his prowess, he wouldn't even flinch while getting punched. But on one fine occasion, a college kid named Whitehead threw a surprise punch at Houdini, which he wasn't prepared for.
Whitehead didn’t mean any harm. He thought he was just recreating the same trick he’d just seen Houdini perform a thousand times before. But Houdini wasn't ready for the punch as he would be on stage while performing. Whitehead caught him off-guard. The pain from the punch Whitehead threw was visible on Houdini's face, but he walked it off at that time.
The next morning, Houdini woke up with trembling pains in his abdomen. After a medical examination was conducted, it was found that Houdini had ruptured his abdomen. In the short few days after the incident, Houdini was declared dead.
Harry Houdini was probably the most talented person in history at calculating and surviving big risks. Tie him up in chains and throw him into the water! No worries. Bury him alive in the sand. No issue; he would easily escape and show up in seconds—because he had a plan. But a surprising punch from a college kid was lethal Enough to kill him.
"Invest in preparedness, not in prediction." - Nassim Taleb
Not too long ago, one of our older neighbors was diagnosed with a problem in his brain. Unlike most families in India. This family was most likely better equipped to deal with things if they took a downturn. They had adequate insurance, enough savings, and everything a financial savant would have. But when the brain problem took a turn for the worse, their insurance money ran out, their savings ran out, and in the end, even the house they lived in. No amount of preparedness seemed to be enough in their case. But unfortunately, that's how luck works—some get it bad and some worse.
I have come to realize that preparedness is a much more important factor when planning finances than predicting the goals of cars, houses, and luxury. They are important too, but the worst things that can happen to you if you don't, buy that next fancy car is nothing compared to what you will feel when bad luck just keeps hitting you and you don't have the plan to fight it.
Until next time…
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