No Navigation for Real Life

I usually drive to my office with navigation on, and at every turn, it suggests an alternative route: 5 minutes faster. 7 minutes slower. The screen keeps flashing updates at me. But over time, I’ve learned to ignore them and stick to the route I know is best.

After all, there is no way to know if the route saves those minutes. Once I take a path, it becomes my reality. Faster or slower, it doesn't matter. But every time I go against the suggested route, a question lingers in the back of my mind: should I have taken the other path?

Thank god, I can't navigate my life with a map always on.

A navigation system suggesting an alternative decision at every incident, flaunting a metric. 5 years longer life. 3 years in quality time with family. 1 year full of hardships. Such a life would be so anxiety inducing. I'd dread every moment I had to make a decision. What is the cost of ignoring the suggested alternative? Without such a system, the decisions I make are the best for me. I don’t stress over what could have been.

Because knowing what could have been takes away from what is.