Are we in control or being controlled? As much as we think we are in the driver seat, holding the remote control, or playing the chess board, our actions are mere resultant forces of all the societal forces around us. We are just the object that moved as the forces act upon us, with perhaps a little inertia. Our decisions may seem independent, but is usually in fact shaped by many societal forces such as norms, cultures, events, 3rd parties, even marketing techniques and illusions, to the extent of religion.

A ted talk by Dan Ariel brought across an interesting point, humans, as much as we thought we are being rational, being justified in making the right decisions, being experienced to not make past mistakes, we are consistently, continuously, constantly, being influenced to make that decision.

Dan Ariely used a great example of visual illusion, the funny thing is that we will always be influenced by them despite knowing them, despite revealing the illusion. So as advertising, there are times we see make decisions because we want a deal, we want a good deal. Thus, it’s inevitable that they would include one or two out of mind choices to bring out the attractiveness of the choice they want you to take. Also, many times they would set a default such that we did not consider much on the consequences of the decision, such as checking a box if you WANT or DO NOT WANT to donate your organs.

Then, Dan explains the possible reason as to why we make certain decisions. He explains that sometimes, we chose to go for the default, simply because we would have more choices if we were to change it. For example, a doctor who had forgotten AN alternative medicine for hip injury would probably try that on the patient the following day instead of recommending him to go for a hip replacement, but in cases when he had forgotten TWO OR MORE alternatives, he would just let the patient proceed with the hip replacement.

Lets apply these to daily observations, who would you take for a bar hopping or a date, a slightly less attractive friend than you? No? What would you want to achieve? See how your ‘date’s decision could be deterred by external societal forces?

So then, what I think, is that we are constantly conditioned to think that we are making decision, so we are actually under controlled to make decisions, not that there are things such as fate or whatsoever, but our decisions, is due to the decisions of hundreds and thousands of people, in different timing, place and situation. So I do think that we should have faith in the decision. I watched an upcoming drama series “Wan Fu Lou’, a little spoil here, the protagonist said, that since she had made the decision, no point trying to make it right, why not just go on with the decision and see where it will lead to”, exactly, que sera sera, nothing we can do, but have faith, have faith in that decision you’ve made, and be optimistic.

Since after o lvl, I’ve been evaluating the choices and decisions I’ve made every night before sleep, and I find that, many times, those might not be the best decision, but because of that decision, I could make better decisions, so why dwell over spilled milk? Anyway, life works in a mysterious way, my supervisor just called to cancel my work, as such, I could accompany my relatives to tour marina bay as he study and finish his homework for he got to accompany his family tomorrow. =D

Oh yea, days ago, I gave ODJ to a classmate, that ended in a more suitable hand, she was delighted, and sort of more faith than me in X-tianity, so it certainly benefited her more than it would on me, so that cheered me up really. Ive always believed Im better off as a medium to make a difference to other people more in need. =D

For the 4.14, I would not waste the church money on me, I would definitely share what I've learnt, and hopefully I can teach more suitable people how to apply, just as how I have been trying to output all my knowledge for people to use it for the benefit of mankind, and hopefully not to people who could use them in acts of inhumanity. =D

POM I tutored my classmates on leading, and all bits and pieces, though I'm definitely not the ideal effective teacher, that following day, I went to a classmate house, that missed the group study session, and was rather scared she could not catch up, and went through bit of POM which came out =D but again, as I'm definitely not the ideal effective teacher, she didnt really apply those in exams, but sigh, at least I've tried, and she did not completely forget, just overstressed, naturally. =D

In Zhigao chalet, his friend went to ntuc to buy drinks, resulted him left with nothing to eat, and we ran out of charcoal, so I went to forage the area, and found remaining charcoals to cook the remaining chickens, he was thankly and delighted, so do I. =D

For the very least, for all I've done, I've made a difference.