University of Chicago Prompt

Essay Option 2.

Heisenberg claims that you cannot know both the position and momentum of an electron with total certainty. Choose two other concepts that cannot be known simultaneously and discuss the implications. (Do not consider yourself limited to the field of physics).
Inspired by Doran Bennett, BS'07 Chemistry and Mathematics.

      Heisenberg claims that the momentum and position of an electron can’t be known simultaneously. The more precise we know about momentum, the less certain we are about the position. I think my weaknesses and strengths are similar to the position and the momentum of an electron. The more I realize about my strengths the less I know about my weaknesses, and vice versa.

     Few people are aware of both their strengths and weaknesses. Knowing about strengths makes people feel satisfied with them and forget about their weaknesses. Like every men, I have many weaknesses as well as strengths. It is very hard for me to fix my weaknesses when I’m aware of my strengths because it makes me feel proud of myself. I feel like I can fix my weaknesses later on because they aren’t that significant. Knowledge about my strengths blurs out the awareness of my weaknesses. Sometimes this fact puts me into a trouble. When I take two tests in a row, getting a good score at the first test usually leads me to fail the next test because I forget that I am actually bad at certain subjects and prepare less for the test.

The bigger problem is that this sometimes hinders me from working harder to improve myself. I get fixed to a certain state. Every people have their own weaknesses, so one should try hard to overcome his or her weaknesses and improve. For instance, when I think that I’m good at science, I forget that my writing skills aren’t that good, and then I don’t try hard to improve my writing. Then, my writing skill is fixed to where I was. In order to break from that sate, I need external stimulation like getting bad grade in a writing class.

    Similar things happen in the opposite way. When I’m focused on my weakness, I lose confidence and get depressed, so I forget my strengths. For instance, after I fail at my French quiz, I my mind suffers with the fact that I’m terrible at French, and for a moment I forget that I am actually good at something else. After I realize my weakness and try to fix them, I can’t remind myself of my strengths because I’m too busy improving my weaknesses. My mind is stressed and desperate to solve the flaw. When I first got into middle school, I realized that I was not good at English as my classmate who had lived abroad for a long period of time. During that period, I wasn’t proud of myself because I was too busy improving my language skills.   

I think the ideal situation is while reminding myself that I have various strengths, never forget that I have many weaknesses and need to keep trying to improve myself. However, it is hard to find the equilibrium. Since it is hard to know both respects at the same time, I think it is important task for the rest of my life to find the spot where I can keep improving without being depressed or stressed.