When I taught introductory biochemistry lab in graduate school, we taught the students how to measure unknowns. Before each assay, we asked them to build a standard curve, similar to the one below, using a known substance of known concentration.
The students would then test their unknowns and report back. Inevitably, there were errors in their logic.
When a student told me that his sample registered at 83ug/tube, I gently reminded him of a salient fact. The standard curve represents the only known values. If you assume that the curve continues said behavior outside the parameters established, you will come into an error. We do not know, and most of the machines cannot measure, outside the parameters we taught the students. So, to find out if it was accurate, they had to dilute their samples to get it within the range. Sometimes they found out that their first guess of 83ug was really 88ug, because the line follows different behavior outside detectable limits.
Similarly in life, people project things outside detectable limits. We know about the past, and we observe the present, and we presume that gives us sufficient to predict the future. When I graduated from high school, I was voted most likely to succeed. Nobody foresaw the events through which I have since passed.
People meet other people and assume they will be that way forever. What we are however is a result of what we experience, and unless we only experience in perpetuity that which we already know, we will change. Plus, if you only experience things you know, you will never grow... Just because someone is cute now doesn't mean they will always be. Just because someone is rich now doesn't mean they will always be. I could tell you stories...
The future is in motion until the moment of choice. Our reality results from our choices. So, if you don't like what you have, dilute it, get a fresh sample, remeasure your life, and get it to a place you know.
The students would then test their unknowns and report back. Inevitably, there were errors in their logic.
When a student told me that his sample registered at 83ug/tube, I gently reminded him of a salient fact. The standard curve represents the only known values. If you assume that the curve continues said behavior outside the parameters established, you will come into an error. We do not know, and most of the machines cannot measure, outside the parameters we taught the students. So, to find out if it was accurate, they had to dilute their samples to get it within the range. Sometimes they found out that their first guess of 83ug was really 88ug, because the line follows different behavior outside detectable limits.
Similarly in life, people project things outside detectable limits. We know about the past, and we observe the present, and we presume that gives us sufficient to predict the future. When I graduated from high school, I was voted most likely to succeed. Nobody foresaw the events through which I have since passed.
People meet other people and assume they will be that way forever. What we are however is a result of what we experience, and unless we only experience in perpetuity that which we already know, we will change. Plus, if you only experience things you know, you will never grow... Just because someone is cute now doesn't mean they will always be. Just because someone is rich now doesn't mean they will always be. I could tell you stories...
The future is in motion until the moment of choice. Our reality results from our choices. So, if you don't like what you have, dilute it, get a fresh sample, remeasure your life, and get it to a place you know.
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