Sitting on a tuktuk and looking at the road

a year ago I was in college, going from my campus to the town square where me and my friends would roam around and spend the evening.
we used to travel in e-rickshaws, with 6 people seating capacity (min, as usually they fit around 8-10 haha).
imagine yourself sitting in one. but wait where?

an e-rickshaw (tuktuk)

so while going to the town I was sitting at the back seat, facing the driver and the vehicles ahead.
a thought process came across my mind - I was looking at the cars, vehicles that were coming from ahead. As a driver, he was looking at the future, a car he was able to see far away was sure to cross by our’s. It’s like the road was a timeline and the cars were events. If the driver gives an indicator to turn left, it changes the actions of the cars ahead and behind us. Causality and action-chain, it all makes sense. it was then that we reached the town and I was back to reality. switched the tabs

after a lot of fun and shenanigans, we were back on another tuktuk to go back to college. this time I was sitting on one of the front-back seats (if that makes any sense). The seats on the back that are facing the back. Everyone was quite and I switch tabs again
this time it’s a different perspective, one that’s even more relatable. I’m seeing the past. Every car we overtake, is new, out of the blue, and I only see it lagging behind once we overtake them. things are only visible once they are done. I’m seeing the actions after the cause and it felt like playing a game blindfolded. I realized I was dependent on someone else that was able to foresee the future or a sliver of it atleast, the driver.

all of this gave a really good analogy in mind, the stages of life

• age 0-12 - we are sitting on the front-back seat. looking at things that have already happened, due to actions taken by the driver (parents) and analysing them with our own new mind. we cannot still simulate future or causality ourselves in depth. but getting there.
• age 13-19 - we are now sitting on the back seat with our ambitions high, telling the driver to drift, wanting to race everyone that is ahead of us and just enjoying the near future that lies, still in control of the driver (parents)
• age 20+ - it is time to get yourself a driving licence (education/degree). the licence will allow you to sit on the driving seat, look and plan for what is coming, take decisions, involve in your tuktuk and other surrounding people’s tuktuk’s lives. your ambitions are toned and matured. you know drifting won’t take you anywhere, and that you’ll need to put on the brakes (take a break) sometimes so you can accelarate further

I felt happy and satisfied, for no reason at all when I thought of this. we are social animals and we want to relate, even if if that is with a tuktuk.

a side thought that I later came across

a few days ago I remembered this and extended it during my flow state. this time it’s about something else - speed and parallax

when looking down straight at the road what does a passenger see? the stripes on the road moving at very high speed flashing across your eyes faster that one can count
when looking forward straight at the same road what does a passenger see? the same stripes on the road moving slowly towards them, slow enough that one can track it with their eyes as it comes near

you know it’s strikingly similar how we compare ourselves in life, or atleast me. right now i want to build new stuff, built it fast and learn fast. when I see everyone around me, it’s like looking down on the road, I’m moving very quick and everyone else is not doing much to grow themselves at the same rate. but when I’m on social platforms like twitter, youtube I see inspiring people shipping inspirinng things every single day, slowly but steadily getting far far ahead on something I am just tipping my toes in. It feels like looking straight forward on the road when I get this feeling that I’m moving too slow, and catching up will take time.
ideally looking from a thrid person perspective who is standing on the road, I’m moving at the same speed or maybe accelerating irrespective of the feeling I get.

and again slowly but steadily those stripes on the road far ahead will eventually be the ones that I’ll zip by at light speed