To dig or not do dig or being unable to dig

This will be a long and harsh post, but not harsh on you. I will talk about the image below. It is created by some artist called DUM a long time ago, who has his signature on the image. I have recently watched a video about this image. You can also watch that video, i will reference it a couple of times but mostly, i will dig deeper into this issue. What is the issue here? Is this image realistic?

I am sure the owner of the image had good intentions. He presented a very vivid representation to inspire people or give them morale boost to pursue their dreams. He probably wanted to tell "you never know how close you are" and tried to invoke a little bit of FOMO, fear of missing out. This image could give some people a bit of boost, but in reality, people will think differently. I will look at this from 2 perspectives. Both philosophical and realistic. First i will start questioning like Socrates. Then i will get real and talk about troubles that you are having. The second part will be harsh.

Let's think

What do we see in the image? First of all, this image is a god level representation. You see some relatively old person seemingly tired and giving up on digging just before he reaches a pile of diamonds. He also looks disappointed. Maybe 1 more swing of axe and he is rich beyond imagination. Well, being rich should not be the ultimate dream of every living person, but let's not question the narrow-mindedness or humankind. There is also another eager and younger person digging eagerly and seems like he will reach the diamonds in the end. We all know this because we are literally in a god-like position. Let's consider the tired guy's perspective.

He has been digging for a long time probably. We don't know exactly how much, 1 year or maybe 50 years. We don't know how much sacrifice he made along the way. He doesn't have any information or whatsoever about how close he is. He doesn't even know he will find diamonds, let alone anything valuable. All he knows is that he has been digging for a long time. And digging takes time and energy, which translates into money, which is the first sacrifice he must have made. But let's keep the materialistic side to the second part.

If you remove the guy on top, the image still represents the same motivation. The other guy seems eager. This hints that someone else has a better chance at getting the dream. This leads to FOMO. This forces the tired guy to keep going. Even though the eager guy might end up getting tired after 100 axe swings, the image doesn't reflect that. So you will get the impression that you should never ever stop. Because you may be close and someone might also be on the way. The tired guy doesn't know anyone else is digging, he MUST assume it. Later he will find out after giving up. Does this mentality make sense, putting blind faith into one path? Maybe there can be other tunnels to dig. Just because you have started digging, does that mean you have to keep going no matter what? According to this image, yes you have to. It claims "digging guarantees you a reward".

Also, what is a dream and what is a goal? A goal is usually something that you can lay down a path to achieve. It usually has milestones too. A huge goal can be achieved with small and consistent steps. But a dream is different. Dream is usually an unusual set of circumstances joined at the same time. You don't know how to get there. You try various ways. You don't know how long it will take. There is no guarantee you will even get there. It is just a dream and it may not be down to earth. So this image is mostly about dreams, not a goal with foreseeable milestones. And you are judging people based on their uninformed decisions. It is not fair.

Also technically, you don't know you will find diamonds. What if you find dinosaur bones. Yes the image is figurative i know that, but in real life, we don't know what we will actually experience if we reach our dream. Life is a complex matter and we humans are complex beings. But for the sake of simplicity, we can assume your dream will get you something huge. Don't get me wrong. Motivation is key to progress. But progress or persistency does not guarantee a result or a good result. In the image, the artist put diamonds there. In real life, digging won't guarantee diamonds. But again, we can assume that you have a valid dream. Otherwise blind digging would be non-sensical.

At the end of the video, the youtuber says "maybe the guy on top gets diamonds just because he likes digging". But the artist put diamonds there :D We can't make deductions based on this image in real life. Yeah let's hit the road and maybe we get to heaven! Does this make sense? No, you don't just start digging without any probable outcome. You can't expect people to be Sisyphus examples. Are we supposed to be happy that our destiny is to dig and dig and never expect anything to happen? Capitalism would promote that, i think.

I have written about believing and i have said we humans mostly rely on statistics. From the tired guy's perspective, he calculated all his effort and path and decided that he won't get diamonds or even if he gets them, it won't matter. Because it was a trade of between life and dreams. I will now start talking about real stuff. Because pondering over an illustration is not much productive. Also it kind of seems like i am insulting the art of someone. That is not my purpose.

Let's get real

Let me repeat one more time. Digging is time and effort. In real life, this combination requires money. So first and foremost, we have no idea how much real stuff the tired guy has spent. Maybe he lost his fortune to this. Maybe he dug for 50 years and he is now 80 years old and barely able to walk. Maybe he worked 9 to 5 weekdays and also worked on weekends to dig more, which damaged his health. Without any hint of what to expect or how close it is, there is a point where the trade of becomes logically unacceptable. You might know the "energy - time - money" chart. You can't have all at the same time. The real world is ridiculous from that perspective.

There is a runner example in the video. I can't remember the exact numbers but some athlete ran a certain length in a certain duration. Like running 100 meters in 10 seconds. Back than it seemed impossible to achieve but when someone achieves it, other people started pursuing it too. In real life, you don't copy other what people have already acquired. At least, you should have some genuine dream. But i will cut you some slack. If you need to see someone achieving something to start dreaming of it, make sure you have the multidimensional view of the history. Also ask yourself, is it worth the effort?

For example, you are a poor Indian living among almost a billion. What are the chances of you starting a company and finding funding from a rich guy and becoming a millionaire or something? Or like an example from the youtuber's video, if you are keeping your old school hot dog shop somewhere without many customers for years, what are the chances of some celebrity walking past by your place and recommending it on their social media? What are the chances of you developing a piece of useful software in your tiny room and selling it later for billions of dollars? Maybe these have happened before. But they happened to different people under different circumstances. Reality kicks in at some point and i am not talking only about statistics.

Since we are mostly looking at other people's "success" stories and setting ourselves dreams, we usually dream of fame or wealth. Maybe a small percentage might be dreaming of becoming a president or a public figure or something. And some dreamers are probably dreaming of living in a certain country or having a certain car or marrying someone or owning a small business ...etc. And some people don't have any dreams at all, who i call the walking dead :) You know what, let's dig deeper.

So your dream is money or fame right? I am not judging you. Do you know how many millions of people have the same dream? There is mostly 1 way of becoming famous these days, and it is social media. And so many competitors walking on the same path drastically reduces your chance to be notified. But maybe you want to sing or dance or play football or something. Again, too many people are on that path already. It is statistically meaningless to try digging those tunnels. But it is not only statistics.

Maybe you want money. Not easy money like winning the lottery, honest earned money. You look at Warren Buffet or Bill Gates or Google ..etc. Do you know how many years they have had to spend on their journey? Remember "energy - time - money" situation. They had all three to begin with + less competition. If you dig patiently for 20 years, those diamonds will be long gone or maybe your idea or product will be dead or irrelevant before born.

Maybe you want to be a political figure. Well, those people are already closely tied to some organizations or some group of people. You are way out of that circle. You have to try so hard to get into it. What is your specialty to boost you in that endeavor? Maybe back in the days it was a bit more probable. But these days, the world is operating on networks.

Maybe you are a humble person who only has relatively achievable dreams. They will mostly look like goals. Small people can't dream big. I don't mean any insult here. I am small too :D We have material constraints in life, especially in this dysfunctional capitalist world these days. Let's say small dreams are also dreams. Your path would probably be harder to go further if you don't have some luck. The real world mostly operates on luck, not persistency or hard work.

If you are seeking for love, that must be mutual right? If you want to change your country and born in a poor African country, you can't even dream of achieving that dream. If you have developed some scientific gadget or idea, someone must be able to understand you to begin with. You want to improve on sports? You will need time and some infrastructure and health. If you want to be a writer or something, you need to come across with people who likes your style. Sometimes it is even impossible to take steps towards tangible goals. In the end, we realize the materialism focused world is killing or strangling any probability of innovation. We end up being forced to live with what money and network owners want.

There is only 1 indisputable truth. If there are diamonds in the end, stopping will definitely won't get you anywhere. But it doesn't mean you won't be presented with other opportunities to dig, sometimes letting go is a valid choice too. You should definitely have an axe. Be ready to dig. After that, it is mostly a matter of luck. Like buying bitcoin back in 2010. Or like buying stocks of a garage company back in 2000s. Or like the discovery of penicillin. You can't dig 10 tunnels at the same time. You can't choose one either.

Apart from luck, there is something called finance. Believe me, most of the success stories of today is backed up by either luck or finance. Some person was close enough to reach another person to convince them to support their ideas, which means convincing them for return of investment. When you hear about a fancy new website or an organization or a product, they probably already got funding. Which means they were lucky to rise above other millions all the while obeying the laws of finance, which is making rich people richer.

Here is another angle. Think about a person born in China or Venezuela vs born in Finland or Switzerland. 60% of your destiny is sealed when you are conceived in your mother's womb. 90% of your possible ways are almost determined the second you are born. You may have an illness to live with. Or you may already have world renown people or companies within your reach. You might have to spend 15 years to reach only 1 person while others are born among them. Side note, that is why i say "you won't be only responsible of your wrong doings, but also the right things you didn't do". Most of our dreams are like winning the lottery in this world, since we are like 8 billion on earth. The idiots who say "losers have excuses, winners have will or plan" are scam influencers who are trying to sell you something. Again, i know motivation is key to progress. But faith does not guarantee progress. Progress does not guarantee result.

I know there are people who suggest equal opportunities but opportunity is a situational thing. You can give both your children the same education but you can't expect them to have the same interests or abilities. If one of them wants to be a painter, you need to provide your kid a canvas and bunch of colors and etc. So what i mean is, you should give people a helping hand along their journey. In real life, there are other ways of pursuing your dreams. Maybe instead of digging, you have to swim or climb or run, figuratively. Not all of them are equally heavy. Not every people have the same difficulty to keep going.

What is your point then?

Personally, i like probabilities and being able to dream and dig. I like digging multiple tunnels for multiple dreams. This way, i can increase the chance of hitting a jackpot. But that also spreads the energy, therefore i don't dig with much effort knowing that it is dangerous to exhaust myself. I kind of accept a big portion of my destiny is beyond my control. But i would always have at least one tunnel, which i dig inch by inch without ever giving up if no other tunnel looks more promising. That is why i am keeping my mobile app WhoShares up and maintaining it on android and ios since 2016 :D I am writing my blog since 2021 without concerning about how many readers i have, which includes deep philosophy and a theory about advanced physics. I tried to contact physicists about it too. I have even written a short novel and sent it to publishers. I have developed a side project called Öğret Bakalım. I want my blog to have a billion readers. Or maybe one day my book could be sold millions. Or maybe some physics student finds my view of universe logical and it starts a scientific new age. Or maybe my mobile app takes the world by storm, if people actually get what it is. Digging through a mountain may not mean anything to people in lowlands sometimes. And sometimes, nobody knows why you are digging and what are you digging for, because only you know the reward.

I think you should definitely have big dreams, but not high expectations. So that you always have a next step in the ladder. But keep in mind, you should have logical dreams and don't lose sight of who you are or reality. The new age capitalism is giving you fake dreams to run like hamsters. But it is a whole different topic that deserves another blog post which i have written as travelers of that life. There are meaningful dreams in this world that won't only benefit you, but also others too. Having selfish dreams are not much productive you know. There are big dreamers in the history like Martin Luther, Ghandi or Mandela. But today we have the social climbers :/

So to talk for real, we have a life to support and that means we have to work. We don't have much energy or time to dig. We are too crowded and getting more capitalism focused every day. So it is to dig or not to dig in the end. Nothing is for certain. Nobody can judge you for giving up or digging further. Nobody can promise you a ton of diamonds. Most of the times nobody knows how hard digging is for you. Sometimes nobody knows or understands what you are digging for. Life may be short and sometimes we may not even be able to take steps towards tangible goals. It is all complicated in life. But we need a world where dreams and dreamers can live. We are mostly living on the realized dreams of others in the past. Just go buy an axe. Or sell axes and try to be rich. It is up to you. I also have posts about the choice and the tree. See you at the next post :)