When the End Is Near
“And now, the end is near,” croons Frank Sinatra. But how do we know when we’re getting to an ending—or to a point of no return?
Key concepts
- Point of No Return
- The threshold past which a process can no longer be reversed. Some are physical — a plane past its takeoff decision speed must fly — and some are purely human, like a sentence said in anger. A large part of growing up is learning to feel one coming before you cross it.
Every work — at a glance
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My Way — Paul Anka / Frank Sinatra (song)
A slow, swelling ballad sung as a deathbed summing-up: the singer faces 'the final curtain', concedes 'regrets, I've had a few — but then again, too few to mention', and lands on 'I did it my way'.
What to know
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01
How do we know when we're getting to an ending? Usually we don't, so we reach instead for a signal we can recognise — a final curtain, a last day, a countdown — and treat it as the ending. "And now, the end is near" is that move performed out loud: the song announces an ending in order to be able to respond to one.
+ 2 more insights inside
Across subjects
Theme connection
"Are We There Yet?"
Practice — a sample
SPCWhich finding would MOST challenge treating V1, the takeoff decision speed, as a point of no return?
- A Some late aborts succeeded
- B Crews rehearsed the call
- C Pilots reported feeling committed
- D Pilots recomputed V1 hourly
- E Engine failures proved rare
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