We use the word or all the time. I’m sure you use it multiple times a day, everyday. Right there in our decision-making, at the bifurcation point where the road splits in two directions and there’s a call for a choice to be made. And so many times, those two points are headed in opposite directions from each other. Make a choice to go in one direction and there’s that lil itch that will only get scratched when you receive some confirmation – verbally or visually or maybe even viscerally – that you made the ‘better’ choice. But what if your better isn’t the better for everyone else on your ride?

In ye ol’ math world, the word or is used as an inclusive word.

When the word or is used in a mathematical problem, it’s a connector word, it’s actually an operator [oh hi Mathnificent WoW from April 25th], it’s a “mapping between two function spaces”.

Situationally, the math definition of the word or can be an “always looking on the bright side” sort of word; it’s A Brightsider . I mean, in math-speak, the likelihood that you’re gonna be able to say that a choice between two things is “true” is 3:1, right? I like them odds.

Let’s say you wanted to see the ocean today and you thought that when you had to choose which direction to go in, you had made the ‘better’ choice. And though you eventually found out you had made what wasn’t the better choice for you and your goal, did you then take a moment to consider that your choice actually was good for someone else in your vehicle? Did they get to see something they wouldn’t have ever seen or experienced if you had gone the other way? Could you brightside it to alleviate some of that pressure you have put on yourself to always make the better decision?

Sure, your ‘not-better’ decision may have absolutely caused the need to make a u-turn to get back on the original path, but unless this was a life/death decision, there’s probably somewhere in there you can brightside it – even if only for a moment. It might just be a lesson learned sort of thing.

Or, not.

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