Uninevitable
A few thoughts on progress.
“All the progress is the things that are uninevitable, right?” - Anjan Katta on Dialectic Episode #16 at 36:32.
I haven’t been able to get this out of my head ever since hearing it a few weeks ago.
Anjan Katta is the CEO of a new computing company called Daylight, and I just love the way he thinks about the world.
What Anjan is pointing to here, is a universal truth about the way big ideas develop.
In John Gardner’s potent book Self-Renewal, he states it this way on page 29:
How many of us can really recognize in the vast clutter of modern life the seedlings of new ideas and new ways that will shape the future? The new thing rarely comes on with a flourish of trumpets. The historic innovation looks exciting in the history books, but if one could question those who lived at the time, the typical response would be neither, “I opposed it” nor “I welcomed it,” but “I didn’t know it was happening.”
The new thing rarely comes on with a flourish of trumpets. That’s worth keeping on a Post-It.
This got me thinking about two things related to progress.
We need to try things that may not work.
We need to pay attention to the small things.
***
One thing I’ve learned about the winter after having lived in Canada for 23 years: Light snow is scarier than heavy snow.
I think this holds for rain too. When the rain is torrential, it likely won’t last long. The same goes for snow.
The light, slow, slightly pretty, and eerily quiet snow is what ends up causing a snow day. We had one of these the other day, where we went from being able to see the pavement one day, to every school in our Province being shut down the next morning.
The light snow is easy to ignore, because it’s small. It being able to cause a system-wide school closure feels uninevitable. It’s not going to arrive with a flourish of trumpets.
***
I can see an easy counter-argument to the idea of paying attention to the small things.
Our attention is scarce, so of the many small things, how do we know what to invest our attention in?
And how long do we keep investing before we give up?
Luckily, I think the answer to both of these is the same and it connects to both of the points I made earlier about progress:
Try things you’re interested in and pay attention to things you find interesting for as long as you still find them interesting.
In short: To make progress, follow your interests.
It’s uninevitable where they may lead.
In these two suggestions I see a bit of care and the need for enough safety that is created by care and supported by careful relationships:
We need to try things that may not work.
We need to pay attention to the small things.
Chefs kiss.