Even the Rocks are Moving (Evolution)

Nothing sits still. Look at a rock under a powerful microscope, and you’ll see its parts moving. Vibrating particles. Everything is undergoing constant reassembly. Growing, breaking, dying, rebuilding. Energy isn’t created or destroyed, just transformed. It’s all in flux.

You’re part of this impermanence too. Biologically, you’re a temporary vessel for DNA. Your cells, your mind, the people around you, the social circles and systems you’re part of… they’re all temporary arrangements, constantly changing, vying for their version of better.

And there may not be a plan behind all this. (Whether we were Created or created is up to you). Evolution isn’t tidy or intelligent. It stumbles through messy paths and repeatedly hits dead ends (history repeats itself). Every individual is doing what’s best for themselves, scrambling for an advantage, yet somehow this churning enables large systems of individuals to work as a somewhat effective whole.

A few ideas on navigating systems filled with self-interested individuals:

  • Incredible amounts of time and money are lit afire in the name of planning, forecasting, and prediction. Some people spend their entire careers in that grift. You can barely see a few steps ahead, so don’t pretend or be convinced that any prediction is within a country mile of perfect.
  • Even when history doesn’t repeat itself, it usually rhymes. Study the past. Read history and biographies to learn about patterns, not just events. Biographies are particularly helpful for tracing paths others took, to learn what they achieved, what they sacrificed. See where X keeps leading to Y.
  • Big goals paralyze, especially if you’re prone to perfectionism. Break stuff down. Small, quick steps in the right direction beat fragile, risk-laden leaps toward grand plans. What’s impossible in its entirety but can be made possible incrementally?
  • Systems are mosh pits. Don’t wait for flawless stability or logic. It’s never coming. Focus on making your next move constructive within the churn. Agility beats perfection.

“Every atom you possess has almost certainly passed through several stars and been part of millions of organisms on its way to becoming you. We are each so atomically numerous and so vigorously recycled at death that a significant number of our atoms — up to a billion for each of us, it has been suggested — probably once belonged to Shakespeare. A billion more each came from Buddha and Genghis Khan and Beethoven, and any other historical figure you care to name… So we are all reincarnations — though short-lived ones. When we die our atoms will disassemble and move off to find new uses elsewhere — as part of a leaf or other human being or drop of dew. Atoms, however, go on practically forever.”

~Bill Bryson, A Short History of Nearly Everything (Book)

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