The Art of Defocused Life

Probably I should begin with a context of what I am trying to express.

Consider a common scenario: A student is attending a class in which a professor is giving a lecture. At the same time, he is checking his social media feeds, giving attention to the pretty peer sitting beside him, thinking about the football match yesterday, planning how to complete the assignment he forgot to submit, and about various other issues in his life. He is constantly torn between focusing on many other issues, events, things that are happening to, with, and around him. This restless need to focus on things to live life in the twenty-first century is the topic of today’s discussion.

In today’s world, we are constantly making efforts to make sense of the myriad of things that are happening and finding some sense of certainty in the process. From our present innovations of AI and algorithms to our ancestors’ usage of Zodiac signs, all of these were simply in place to give some certainty about the uncertain. There is no harm in knowing or trying to predict the future; however, the purpose of that matters. For the most part of human history, the purpose of this was probably benevolent; however, in our search for certainty, we have become too focused on everything around us. This apparent focus on everything causes a loss of in-depth focus on anything, hence, I am arguing in favor of a defocused life.

In a defocused life, one would try to lead a life that doesn’t look for certainty in anything, in which, one not only understands the unpredictability and immense possibility of life but cherish it. This attitude towards life can strike similar to the concept Amor Fati but it is not. Living a defocused life doesn’t necessarily mean one believes everything to be fated, rather that there are uncountable influencers and variables of life that is simply impossible to comprehend, and without comprehending all of these variables in their totality, it is not possible to make sense of the uncertainty that lies ahead. And if someday we become able to comprehend all of these variables to reduce the uncertainty of life at a level that is understandable to human beings, then I fear, the essence of life itself, which is intimately tied with uncertainty and unpredictability, will be lost.

One of Oscar Wilde’s famous quotes can best describe the argument I am putting in favor of defocused life:

Life is too important to be taken seriously

My interpretation of this quote is that Wilde understood the beauty of unpredictability and uncertainty of life. Probably he meant, one should neither get submerged in everything happening around him nor focus on any single aspect of life. That doesn’t mean, one should be disinterested, aloof, or detached. One can be curious, attached, and interested in things going on around him, and still live a defocused life, for the lack of focus provides a sense of generality towards everything and the ability to see things from a dual perspective. It also offers one the choice and extent of engagement with various aspects of life. It’s like, understanding the uncertainty of life to shape one’s life knowing it has full of possibilities and is unpredictable.

In short, defocused life dispises measures of finding certainty about one’s life, of predicting the outcome of life itself, and encourages one to understand the immense possibilities of life, for this, is the beauty of life. It praises the inherent wild guess, the positionality, and the contexualizability of life as it liberates life from people’s expectations of themselves and of others.