As an engineer, I always see life through an engineering lens. I have always believed that the universe works according to equations — but extraordinarily complex ones. As I discussed in one of my previous articles, relationships in the natural sciences can often be represented in a relatively structured form: A + B = C + D. Certain inputs, under defined conditions, lead to certain outputs. Social sciences also attempt to understand relationships between inputs and outputs. However, human systems — including attitudes, behaviors, organizations, societies, and more — are far more complex and involve multiple interconnected variables, feedback loops, uncertainties, and conditions that continuously influence one another. From my engineering perspective, I believe life follows the same principle. There may be an equation behind many outcomes, but it is an equation containing countless variables — some visible, some hidden, some controllable, and others completely beyond our control.
For example, when I was younger, I believed that success was a function of effort and discipline, i.e. Success = f (Effort, Discipline). Work hard, stay disciplined, and keep going, and success will inevitably follow. But with time and experience, I realized that the equation was incomplete. I have seen people work extraordinarily hard and remain deeply disciplined, yet never achieve the success they expected — and vice versa. Perhaps success still has a formula, but we are missing an important variable, “X,” i.e. Success = f (Effort, Discipline, X). For me, X is not the conventional X-factor associated with charisma or exceptional talent; rather, it represents the unknown variables of life. Some people may call X luck; others may call it opportunity, timing, surrounding environment, circumstances, connections, communication, and/or access to resources. In reality, X may not be one variable at all. It may represent hundreds of interacting variables that influence whether our effort is eventually translated into success. This does not reduce the importance of effort or discipline, as they are largely known and within our control; X often is not. So, I still strongly believe in effort and hard work. I still believe in discipline. But experience has taught me to respect the complexity of life: “The universe has an equation; we just do not know all its variables.”
Article By Dr. Eng. Amr H. Abayazeed - August 17, 2026.
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