Evaluating 25 years in 25 minutes

Today morning was the warmest morning of the year. The temperature well above freezing kept me thinking during my bus ride to work. Do not know exactly why but I just checked the date; it was Friday March 9, 2007. Suddenly I realized that on the 31st I will be 25 a very significant landmark in my life. I started to evaluate the major events, successes and failures in past few years. The question of what has happened and what could have happened started mingling. Having a statistic background, I started to “quantify” the success in my life until now. Various hypotheses were proposed, proved and disproved in seconds; the computing rate was much higher than the latest P4. After some time it was clear that measuring what you have achieved and what you have not is relative and subjective evaluation. One tends to compare everything with his colleagues and social surroundings existing at that time. Thus, the evaluation becomes you versus others than being what you have achieved versus what you “could” have achieved with your capabilities and qualities. The toughest part according to me is judging one’s qualities, capabilities and the most importantly limitations. One who can quantify it correctly will succeed to the fullest (again, this is relative). By this time, I had already burned another 25 valuable minutes of my life. I had recaptured 25 years in 25 minutes …. then; my bus-stop arrived; I got off the bus; and the regular day followed …