Choices and Outcomes in Life - Essay Example

 The concepts covered in arts and humanities help explain how people make decisions. This is because arts and humanities focus on researching on human experiences. This knowledge helps one to understand the world better. Through these subjects, one has a better understanding of the world. One of the artistic ways of seeing life is by visualizing it as a book. One can identify life as a book with so many chapters that describe the many situations we go through before we achieve what we want. In a world that is so competitive, a man-eat-man society , a capitalised society that only spares some space for those who have, many know and have held to that notion that, making it is not a mere swing in the park. The decisions we make in early in life define who we become in future. Our life is entirely about choices and decisions, and Ruth Chang is startled that some of these decisions are so hard to make. Steve Jobs is a typical representation of what one has to go through life. Paul Graham insists that we have to do what we love. The three writers offer us some insights on how to approach and handle failures in life. Our backgrounds will always be different. Some are lucky enough to have a first class family while others would be lucky to have a roof over their head. Our beginnings are always different and how we perceive them shape the paths we chose in life. Although some quit hoping to find shortcuts in life, persistence is an important virtue if one has to succeed. Steve Jobs does well to underscore the fact that a tough beginning does not necessary mean a rough ending. Having done so well in life, in the long run, he gets us back to the question of dreaming versus reality. He owns a company already, a multi-billion-dollar company. He asserts jokingly that addressing the graduates was closest he ever got to a college graduation[Ste05]. He walks us through his life even before he was born, and reminds us that some of us have a better chance of succeeding than him. He was in line for adoption as his mother would not afford to raise him. The parents in question never wanted a baby boy in the first place, and thus Jobs had another hurdle to deal with. With a biological mother who had graduated from college, finding adopters who would see the need for his college education was a priority. But many college dropouts don’t realize the need for such education to begin with. Steve Jobs gets us into emotion turmoil when he reveals that his adopted mother was a college dropout while the adopted father never graduated from high school. These parents inspire us all when they can afford to have Jobs in an expensive college like Stanford. Maybe Jobs is right to be empathetic and realize the damage he was doing to their lifetime savings. His decisions to quit after six months and open a new chapter in life show that sometimes in life, you need to make tough decisions. GOOD In a world where people are treated differently, one would want to know that some people’s decisions that turned right are not always right for others. Jobs had to go through a tough life as a dropout. Sleeping on friend’s floor, having to trade coca cola bottles for 5 cents, and having to try a decent meal in one of the local churches was degrading enough. But Jobs does it right. He identifies what he likes, what interests and what makes sense to him. He would sneak into calligraphy classes and learn what makes topography great. Many opt out for such options as crime and drug abuse. Steve Jobs does choose to learn what he loves. He finally manages to connect the dots backwards when he finally applies his calligraphy lessons while designing the Mac computer. He wouldn’t have learned this without having to make a tough decision to drop out of college and drop in calligraphy. Mac would have multiple typefaces and proportionally spaced fonts. One would have to trust in something that would be in many forms; it would be destiny, gut, karma or life as Steve Jobs lists them. A firm approach like that taken by Steve Jobs always brings results. Paul Graham, like Jobs, insists we should do what we love[Pau16]. He looks at the kids versus the grown up, the two categories of people who seem to love two different things. Kids would want to play more and avoid working. The grown-ups don’t even help it when they send them to school. They would see it as an opportunity for these kids to prepare for their grown-up stage of life. Graham realized that his teachers were never happy as they never loved what they did. They never loved their jobs. It takes passion and self-drive to love one’s job. Wrong choice of careers affect our lives, and we do not realize the goals and what we would consider as success in our wishful thinking. We are sometimes forced to stick where we are because we have to earn a living. Life is sometimes about doing what we love. Steve Jobs starts what he loves in a garage, and finally Apple grows to a multi-billion dollar company after 10 years. This is someone who would have no place to call home. He would live at the mercy of friends. But at 20, with just a few friends, the company kick starts, and he finally has something of his own. He would hire and employ more than 4000 employees. It is important to understand what works well with us and embark on it as soon as possible. Starting it would be demand self-discipline and self-belief. Ruth Chang appreciates that choices are diverse. We make career choices and decisions, choices about partners and even choices about the size of the family to have[Rut141]. We consider some as big decisions while we see others as small, yet both categories present dilemmas in their events. Petty decisions like choice of breakfast would prove hard to make, but she asserts we should not consider ourselves stupid. She reckons how she was confused between being a philosopher and being a lawyer. She would settle for law citing job insecurities but had to switch back to philosophy later on. One would agree with her when she charges that choices carry different values that are beyond monetary terms. She underscores the fact that, a well-paying job doesn’t necessarily meet our expectations and dreams. Having to make tough and hard choices would be empowering in the long run. The outcomes of the decisions we make reveal the role of doubt, mistakes, and failures that pop up in the course of our lives. They tend define the future we would have when we settle for one aspect at the expense of the other. They become hard lessons to us and provide important experiences to others. The concepts of arts and humanities provide clear insights as to why we settle for the decisions we make. We are able to empathise with others when they share with us their life experiences. We identify with their fears, uncertainties and lack of courage at some different points of life. Even the most successful make wrong choices in life. Some would settle for drugs to disguise their sadness and lack of satisfaction with their current situations. The concepts covered inn arts and humanities help explain how people make decisions. Throughout this paper, it has been demonstrated that knowledge in arts and humanities is an eye opener in our attempts to understand the world and the future. Throughout this paper, it has been demonstrated that life is like a book. The chapters we write in this book are the decisions we make, and these define our future. This paper has focused on human experiences of three people: Steve Jobs, Paul Graham and Ruth Chang. Through their experiences, this paper has demonstrated how decisions affect one’s future. Works Cited Steve, Jobs “You’ve got to find what you love.” 2005. Web Graham, Paul. How to Do What You Love. Jan 2016. 21st April 2015. Web Ruth, Chang. “How To Make Hard Choices.” 2014. Web Read More