For the longest time, I believed there existed a perfect set of methods that one can adopt to lead a successful life. I believed that the entirety of one's youth is spent in the pursuit of these perfect rules; an exhaustive search for the perfect equation. Today, as I discussed mathematics with Yadu at the climbing gym, I returned home befuddled by the non-existence of a perfect path.
Math is seen as the only seemingly proven logical truth to man. Something so meticulously quantified, that it can result in a precisely calculated truth; one of the few certainties in life. However, as Yadu pointed out, this is not the case. Spare me the critique of technicalities but I'll try to explain something interesting that he told me today.
Mathematical theorems are based on axioms or postulates. These are generally perceived as truths, to serve as the starting point for further theorems. For example, the first axiom of equality states that a number is equal to itself (For eg. a=a). Of course, right? Now, get this: this can never be proven correct.
Kurt Gödel in 1931 proved that these axioms can never actually be proven as true, therefore disrupting the very pillar on which any and all mathematical theorems are based. In his incompleteness theorems, he states that no set of axioms (or truths) is capable of proving the truths themselves. You can never prove that a=a, even by using any of the other axioms or "perceived truths". So, the axioms can never be proven to be true by using any of the other axioms, which are the pillars of all mathematical theorems.
What an interesting paradox. A perceived truth is unable to be proven as the truth by any of the other perceived truths, thereby questioning the legitimacy of the truths themselves. Imagine that the one thing that you always believed to be a proven, quantifiable truth was disproved, thereby leaving the door open for any absolute truth. Is there an absolute truth? Is anything definite?
If you understand the fact that any of the believed truths on Earth have a human-generated starting point, you realise that there never existed a perfect path. There can never be an achieving of the truth, therefore making "paths to the truth" redundant as well. There never was a perfect set of methods, a checklist or a road to serenity. No one ever has and no one ever will find an absolute truth because there exists none. No one, absolutely no one, will ever figure out life; if you had your hopes stuck on someone. There is no happy path in life. And this non-existence makes life beautiful, doesn't it?