to open one door is to turn the others into walls.
kierkegaard called anxiety the dizziness of freedom. what frightens us is not the number of options, but how choosing one closes the others.
choosing a framework, committing to a data model, saying no to a job — all of them are closing doors. in engineering we call this a trade-off, but the word is too sterile: in truth, you are saying goodbye to futures that will never be lived. before every big decision i pause; i wait for my finger to tremble. the tremble measures the weight of the decision.
not choosing is also a choice — the most expensive one, because time closes every door. you can come back from the wrong door; you cannot come back from the one you never opened. choose despite the dizziness. it is enough that the light behind your door is worth the darkness of the other four.