A Passing Urge to “Check the Answers”

Have you ever found yourself looking back and wondering, “Was that really the right choice?”
From life‑changing decisions to tiny forks in the road, we all feel the urge to verify whether a “correct” answer to life exists. Yet perhaps that answer isn’t something we can see now—it may emerge only later, when scattered moments connect into a single line.

Jobs’s “Dots” Metaphor

At Stanford’s commencement address, Steve Jobs famously said:

“You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards.
So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future.”

After dropping out of college, Jobs sat in on a calligraphy course simply because it fascinated him—the beauty of letterforms, the balance of spacing and leading.
For years the class seemed pointless, until a decade later it bloomed into the elegant typefaces shipped with the first Mac. In hindsight he could finally say, “That was necessary.”

(For the record, I’ve always been captivated by early OS X typography. Compared with contemporary Windows releases, the Mac’s UI felt far more refined and offered a distinctly higher‑end UX—purely in aesthetic terms. Windows fans, no offense intended!)

The “Dots” Scattered Across Our Own Lives

Our everyday lives are sprinkled with similar dots:

• Hours that seem pointless

• Choices that feel like mistakes

• Efforts we’re tempted to abandon

Yet those very moments may later become vital segments of a larger line.

Think of Van Gogh or Kafka—entire lives unrecognized while they lived. Perhaps answers don’t exist in the present at all; they appear only far down the road. That doesn’t mean we should avoid uncertain paths or skip anything without a clear payoff.

Don’t Rush the Answer—Keep Walking

Even if your choice looks wrong today, trust it and keep moving. Don’t obsess over whether it “matters” right now.

Someday, when you glance back, the doubts and detours may have formed a perfect line.
Life’s answer sheet doesn’t need grading today; right now is the time to keep putting dots on the page.

Do what feels worth doing now—the meaning can wait.