Life: Core Values and Linear Combinations

The concept of linear combinations of vectors is one thing you hear every single day in Linear Algebra class it’s annoying.

So let The Prophet indulge in some of that bygone annoyance now. Put simply, a linear combination is an expression constructed from a set of terms by multiplying each term by a constant and adding the results credits: Wikipedia. Hey hey now please don’t get bored immediately thinking this is some drab mathematics bullshit. It's easy really.

Let me explain with a picture. Behold my MS Word skills: 

Fig 1: Linear Combination (made in MS Word not MS Paint. Wow,  

I did not know one could do such cool things in MS Word! I know I know.)

So we got an orange arrow, a green and a blue arrow. 8 pieces of the orange arrow for THING 1 and 11 pieces of the green arrow for THING 2 led up to the 13 pieces of the blue arrow, adding up to the NET THING. So NET THING is a linear combination of the orange and green pieces of THING 1 and 2. 

NET THING = 8 x THING 1 +  11 x THING 2

This is the essence of linear combinations of vectors, I hope. 

Now, how the hell do I spin this around to some life-altering wisdom? Haha, I'll show you now.

Life is the NET THING, your dreams and aspirations and all the targets you invest your efforts for.

And it is a linear combination of many THINGS. I generalise these THINGS as Core Values (CV), values or principles you can boil down your particular interests into. So cometh my life-altering quintessential equation to life:

LIFE = a x CV1  + b x CV2 + c x CV3 + ...

    

                                                                                 CV: Core Values

                                                                               a,b,c,: Constants, the weights you give to each value 

(Cite me if you're gonna use my equation or we're going to court. My cousin's a lawyer)

So what are CVs? Well, you can make a giant list of Core Values in five minutes. I remember my English teacher at school used to make us write one for each letter of our names.

Honesty, Discipline, Courage, Creativity, Compassion, Adventure, Independence; the list goes on.

Some are antithetical: A life of pure Adventure won't probably be one of Stability. One of Creativity won't be one of Security.

You'll have to pick what you can't do without and what you can let slide to some extent.

The idea is, ask yourself what you want out of life. An endless list of things you want to be will pop up. You want to be rich enough to fly to a country every three months, you want a meaningful job that makes the world a better place, you want to have a ton of cool friends you hang out with every weekend, you wanna be popular and people recognise you on the streets, you'd occasionally like a dose of the quiet simple minimalist life etc. Fantasizing has no limits and you can seemingly get whatever the hell you want, especially in a culture that is cheering for you to "be yourself". But then comes the catch: You can't have it all. Most shit around you is interdependent, and choosing some stuff means losing out on others. 

Let me pull out the "dream job" fantasy to support my case.

What job would you like to take? Probably not the 9-5 kind where you're on the screen doing tasks that higher-ups assign to you and which you have no control over. Self-help books and inspirational videos have decimated such jobs - escape the "rat race". The job has to be fulfilling, one that constantly brings something new to the table and pushes you creatively. It should not be repetitive but always varying and challenging. You should have a say in all that's happening and get your points across. It would be challenging, but you won't have to work 40 hours a week, and the occasional brilliant suggestions from your side that solve the issue are all your boss expects of you. And after all that at the end of the month, your purse puffs up to twice its size. 

Wow. I don't want to be a total pessimist and say such jobs don't exist, they might, but the few lucky ones having them wouldn't likely be too happy to pass them on to you with beaming faces.

For the majority of us, choices have to be made.

You cannot lead a quiet minimalist life and become a global celebrity. You cannot take on a grandiose project that will make a difference in the world and still expects to find time to party with friends and go shopping every weekend.

So how to go about this stupid world where you cannot actually get all that you want, although all the advertisements say you certainly can?

Is renouncing all possessions, showing the middle finger to material possessions and dreams, and living in a mountain cave on leaves and river water the only way out? 

There's an alternative. That's where equation 2 comes in. 

Figure out your Core Values. Find the weights associated with each of them. Try to hold on to them. Bam! That's it.

Here's what the Prophet's got:

LIFE = 900 x Creativity + 500 x Independence + 800 x Growth + 40 x Security + 100 x Adventure + ...

P.S: Weights are not to scale

Point is, figure out what your top 5-6 core values are. 

Find out the values you prioritise more, and focus on them than fixate on values that don't mean as much.

So you'll have a direction to head towards when you get stranded in the ocean of life.

You want to be a dancer? Damn then you shouldn't feel jealous of the tax officer friend who just bought a new car, man. Keep taking the bus and dance your ass off, and if it helps think of the poor sod on his computer reading audit reports.

Pick your sacrifices.

Just look at a list of core values online and pick five or six that really mean a lot to you. This video got some questions that can help filter out the values you resonate with. 

There are a ton of core value questionnaires online too, check them out. This one seems cool. 

Figure out your core values, and you can cut out a lot of bullshit from your life. The next time you're in a conflicting situation where you cannot choose between two options, the values you uphold the most can significantly help. You'll have an inner compass you can rely on when the people around you start screaming to head towards this way or that. 

Core Values change too, cuz people change over time, and situations and opportunities change too. Nothing is fixed, the compass will need recalibrating, new islands will spring up every day, and storms will inevitably knock you down. So this ain't the fix-all for your existential dilemmas. The Prophet doesn't think there's any.

But for those of us feeling totally lost in the waves, this could be a start. Keep swimming.