𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐟𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 '𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐫𝐨𝐚𝐝 𝐥𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐝'

“I want my son to take up a course/profession that other are not. I want him to be an independent thinker not be influenced by what others do”

“Sure, That looks a good strategy. You want him to pick an education stream not being followed by most people”

“Yes. I want him to follow the road less travelled and not be influenced by what others are doing”

“That seems great. But how will he know which is the path less travelled unless he observes what path others are taking?”

“He can see what most others are doing and then choose a path that is different than theirs”

“Excellent. What you are saying is his decision is going to be influenced by what others are doing.”

“No. I don’t want him to do what others are doing.”

“Correct. You don’t want him to follow most others. But the path less travelled is dependent on what others are doing, isn’t it?”

“Now you are confusing me”

Whether we travel on the path that others are travelling (Follow the herd) or choose a path that others are not travelling, it is dependent on what others are doing. There is only an illusion of independence when you choose the path less travelled. You think your decision is not dependent on others but it is when you look under the hood. If everyone is going right you want to go left. Your decision to go left depended on others going right. Later if others turn left you are going to turn right. A real independent decision would be to do what you want to do, go right or left without thinking about what others are doing.