GPS

GPS technology has become a handy asset for travelers. Enter a destination and a starting point, and an app will map out a route and guide you there in real time. If you run into obstacles, the app will update the route and get you to where you’re going.

The process won’t work until you enter the start and end points. It can’t provide any meaningful information until it knows where you are and where you want to go. The process can handle setbacks as it moves along, but it can’t get started without your input.

In college, I studied computer algorithms that solve challenging math problems. One algorithm required the user to guess the answer before it could proceed.

If the correct answer is 12, but the user guesses 8, the program will determine that 8 is not right and will try other values until it finds the right one. It will try a smaller value, like 6, and a larger value like 10 and determine how accurate each guess is.

In this case, since 10 is closer to the correct answer of 12 than the original guess of 8, and since 6 is farther away from the right answer, the algorithm is smart enough to know that the right answer is higher than 8, not lower. It keeps trying until it gets on or close to the right answer.

Enough about computers. Let’s talk about something more practical.

Life is full of ambiguity. We don’t always know the best path to take in order to reach a goal. We might not even know whether the goal itself is right for us. We can ask others for guidance, but ultimately, we have to take chances based on our own values and preferences.

There are two main choices: guess the right path and take some steps to see where they take is, or stay in one place and wait for more information. Only one of those choices leads to something new.

Information doesn’t always come to us. We learn as we go, as we do, as we try, and especially as we fail.

The GPS app can’t correct our route when we’re sitting still. Once we’re moving, it can help guide us past almost any obstacle even if we make some wrong turns.