Decision Making – Blue or Red pill?

In Matrix, Morpheus offers two pills to Neo. ‘Blue’ pill gives blissful ignorance and a life lived in comfortable illusion. ‘Red’ pill would take him to an uncomfortable and struggle-filled reality. Neo does take the ‘Red’ pill and you know the rest.

I wonder what would we do given the choice? Will you take the red one? The purist and ideologist in you is already shouting that you will ‘definitely’ take the red one. After all, we are the righteous heroes in our own stories.

However, think how many times in a day we actually take the red pill. We are making choices every day, multiple times. What do we decide? Our choices are geared towards what’s easy, what will give us greater benefits in the short run, and what will keep us diplomatically correct in the eyes of the world. We seldom do what is really right in the longer run. Why?

The pill we choose determines our lives. There is no magic formula. The success of our choice depends on what success criteria we have. Decision making is as much an art as others would like to make you believe that it is science.

When I started coding, one of the variables that used to appear a lot in the software package (MatrixOne. Now called 3DExperience) I worked on was ‘context’. I couldn’t figure out what it is. But in many bug fixes, just adding this variable used to solve the issue. Happy Coder. Happy Tester. Happy Users. And none understood what magical thing this ‘context’ was.

Off-late, I realized why the variable was named ‘context’.

Likewise in life, we try to solve our problems by borrowing solutions from others. We compare ourselves to others. We follow others’ paths assuming it will lead to the same outcome. The missing piece though is – context. While you should learn from others, applying that knowledge without factoring in context is sub-optimal at best and catastrophic at worst. It’s like using your friend’s eyeglasses and wondering why you can’t see clearly while he can.

When making decisions, do not forget to bring in your ‘context’ to the equation. And make your own decisions. If you’re looking for someone else to solve your problem, good luck. It is very easy to pretend to solve someone else’s problem. People are way too fast and way better experts in offering solutions to others’ problems. However, when the time comes to solve their own problems, see if the same people can solve them the same alacrity and finesse.

The Blue pill can give you temporary pleasure and relief, but it’s the red one only that can lead to growth. Make the right choices even if it seems difficult.

As Morpheus said to Neo after he takes the red pill – “Welcome to the desert of the real”. This desert is better than the illusionary beach. All illusions come to an end, while reality sticks.

One Life. Live Boundless.