The Logic of (Boolean) Philosophy

Ah, I get to talk about two things I like talking about in the same article. For the first (Boolean Logic), that is where I happen to spend most of my working life; formerly as a "Platform-Architect" and now as a Research Assistant in Computer Architecture. For the latter, I have a certain retinue of follower(s) (held under knife point) to whom I preach my philosophy.

Most people seem to think that philosophy is something lofty and unreachable. Others cast it away as unnecessary for day to day survival and completely disregard it. But I choose to argue otherwise. In my humble opinion, philosophy is just a way of life. Everybody has some principles and rules that they either voluntarily or involuntarily subscribe to. This is the very definition of being faithful to one's philosophy. One's philosophy is largely molded as a consequence of his upbringing, the society he lives in and the incidents which touch his life. In this sense, it is a continuously morphing living entity that lives as long as the person lives. Liken it to one's soul or whatever.

My philosophy subscribes to the principles of Boolean Maths. The rules to play the game are very simple. There are only two possibilities to any question or problem - yes or no, right or wrong, true or false. There are no in-betweens. Only black and white, no shades of grey. How can something as complicated as life be so simplistic?

My belief is that with regards to anything that you are doing, you must have made up your mind about whether you want to do it or not. If you don't want to do it, stop doing it. If there is a period when you have not yet made up your mind, that means that you are in the decision making process. This means that you are gathering all the data and parameters necessary to make the decision. In the meanwhile, you may choose to hazard a decision and proceed down a path in advance but you will have to retrace your steps if you find that you mis-predicted. In the world of computer architecture, this is known as speculation and branch prediction. :) The problem with speculation is that you often end up predicting based on history or the common case. While this is good in the field of processors, in life, it is not. It means that you are in danger of being stereotyped and leading the commoners life. Moreover, you cannot go on indefinitely speculating without arriving at a conclusion. Figuring out at a very late stage that your prediction is wrong is okay, (better late than sorry right?), but the question is whether you find the courage and self belief to retrace all the way back and start over again? Most people don't have that courage. They would rather carry down a path that they do not prefer just because they are cozy and familiar with it rather than risk changing their path and fail.

Another important thing that we often forget is that the process of decision making must be an objective process. While inputs may and should include concrete facts and figures, it must not involve spurious parameters like others' opinions, popular voice etc. In this respect, the decision made must be completely your own. In the worst case if you made the wrong choice, at least you have only yourself to blame. You have the solace of knowing the decision was ultimately yours. You end up learning a lot in the process of making the wrong choice which made a better person overall (certainly richer mentally if not monetarily). If you made a second hand choice based on third party advice, whom will you blame later on for screwing up your life? Since nobody cares about you more than yourself, you are the best judge of the situation

Lastly, one man's "right" need not necessarily map to the next man's "right". Ultimately, everyone's philosophy is different. That is why, philosophy is not an exact science though I liken it to Boolean Arithmetic. So choose wisely and happy living!

Coming up... (Which side are you on?)