166. …. but life is not a puzzle to be solved!
“Have you guessed the riddle yet?” the Hatter said, turning to Alice again. “No, I give it up,” Alice replied: “what’s the answer?” “I haven’t the slightest idea,” said the Hatter.
Is life a puzzle to be solved? I don’t know but let us unpeel a little.
In the 2008 movie “Slumdog Millionaire” (and the book “Q&A” on which the movie is based), the protagonist, a tea seller and an unlikely contestant on a high-profile quiz show, gets answers to all the questions right and wins the show. Interestingly, he had to guess answer to only one question — he knew the answers to rest of the questions beforehand. He was never schooled in a conventional sense or particularly prepared for a quiz show. As it happens, various happenstance incidents in his life fortunately equip him with the right answers for the quiz questions.
This is a fictional story, but the quiz show does happen in real life — it is called “Kaun Banega Crorepati” in Hindi and “Who wants to be a Millionaire” in English and similar names in other languages. Luck surely would have played its bit for the winners of these shows, but I do not think that all of that luck was purely random. A portion of that luck must have been manufactured by the participants by generally being curious, mindful and aware as they go about their lives. Such luck generally materializes when one takes on an open-minded approach — as opposed to single minded approach — towards a goal such as winning a quiz show. Think about it — how can anyone possibly be on top of all the general knowledge that is dynamically getting created all the time. If you prepare specifically for a quiz but are also a generally curious and aware person, you subconsciously keep absorbing stuff even that you miss consciously. While the preparation for a quiz may be done specifically and consciously, you have an advantage of sitting on top of vast swathes of unconscious preparation.
“Plan for what it is difficult while it is easy, do what is great while it is small.” — Sun Tzu
Back to the point of this article, when you work resolutely towards achieving big specific goals, you run the risk of excluding serendipitous value that may come along the way. You exclude potentially lucky opportunities when you dedicate your attention and efforts to specific outcomes or goals. This is particularly important in situations where there is no one clear path to success — the same success may be achieved by different people via different paths. In these environments, no single path guarantees success, but some paths increase the likelihood of success. In other words, these environments are complex adaptive systems. Technically, complex adaptive systems contain many interdependent variables and feedback loops. Non-linearity rules these systems i.e., a small change may result in a huge effect and a big change may not result in much of an effect at all.
“Great results can be achieved with small forces.” — Sun Tzu
We deal with complex adaptive systems all the time. Life itself unfolds as a complex adaptive system. Health, careers, wealth, relationships, scientific and spiritual progress and weather — all of these are perfect examples of complex adaptive systems. These systems are not suited for big, hairy, specific goals.
It does not mean that big hairy goals have no place in our lives. In fact, a decent bit of progress is achieved on the back of going after specific goals. Goals help with benchmarking progress and can serve as motivation to cross milestones. But the most consequential progress in the course of human history has come from non-directed efforts. I’m guessing that Einstein did not actively pursue the goal of discovering the special theory of relativity. Darwin certainly did not consciously dedicate his life’s efforts to developing the theory of evolution and natural selection. Einstein and Darwin (and many others) backed their curiosity mindfully and consummately. It seems like the ‘process’ motivated them and the ‘end result’ was happenstance. Ditto with Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, Warren Buffet, Charlie Munger, Galileo etc.
“The only way to know how a complex system will behave-after you modify it-is to modify it and see how it behaves.” — George E. P. Box
As a matter of fact, you really can’t really solve any big enough problem in the domain of complex adaptive systems. You can only address them. You can only move in the direction of your goal while also being ready to shift your goal posts based on the developments along the way (the dynamics of feedback loops).
Reaching Delhi in April or May by flying from Hyderabad is something you may achieve with confidence. Weather is hardly ever a concern for air travel in summer months and there usually are multiple flights every day between Hyderabad and Delhi. However, if you were to travel to Delhi in the winter months, fog may affect your travel unpredictably. There is no guaranty that you will arrive in Delhi by a certain time. You cannot solve this weather problem. You can only address this — by perhaps incorporating a buffer in your travel or by keeping a loose appointment schedule in Delhi or something like that.
The first step towards success in complex adaptive systems is to realize that you are dealing with a complex situation. Once realized, the best approach is to take small steps, have an experimental mindset, closely monitor progress and be prepared to change course based on how things start to turn out. Easily said, though!
Bottomline
“Life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced.” — Soren Kierkegaard
I believe that life is exciting essentially because there are no clear goal posts, no definite paths to destinations and no guaranteed formulae for success. This makes life an exciting odyssey through a dynamic milieu of relationships, experiences, expectations and opportunities. Life lends a natural leverage in amplifying output from small but measured efforts. Life always throws chances your way. You are almost never really out of the game. You can accomplish a great deal in most situations, no matter how disadvantageous they may appear to be. However, all this is possible only for those who are prepared. So, start polishing your understanding of complex adaptive systems. I, for one, will write and share more and more on this topic as I continue to learn and apply it in my life.
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