Step 2
Hi Sophie,
This step is the Blue Footed Booby Birds, ESS and the 500-year old mind. Another one that Tai mentions is foundational, that not much else works without this one.
This step starts with a principle, from a quote, that change is the basic law of nature, and that it’s not the strongest or most intellectual that survives, but the one who can change and ADAPT. Another principle here is, it’s the INTANGIBLES that determine success.
I also see as a principle that In order to get what you want out of life, you must be ADAPTABLE AND CHANGEABLE…which I think translates to taking responsibility for our lives, to where we see that it’s up to us to navigate it thoughtfully and choose paths that take us towards what we want, rather than drifting around hoping it ‘happens to us’.
It’s a principle, too, that humans are hard-wired to NOT be successful. That is interesting…we seem to be wired to ‘go with the flow’ and not upset the boat, and we’re lulled into routines where we don’t consciously look to see what may be coming…to where changes that come up are seen as major disasters, when all they are are the normal random changes that are a basic law of nature. It follows that we haven’t been more successful because we haven’t been adaptable…we haven’t seen the signs or anticipated what could come – we haven’t been AWARE.
As I look back at my own life and some of the more undesirable situations I’ve been in, there were signs that I did see, that I either ignored or justified. I think it’s a principle that it’s not being changeable, just for the sake of changing, but being ADAPTABLE to the changes that come, that results in success. Not changeable because we have to, because our circumstances force us to, but because we saw the ‘signs’, and were able to project into the future possible scenarios that might not be good.
I’m seeing adaptable here as something like consciously changing…being aware enough to see what can happen, and then consciously choosing a path after deliberating – using that chess-like thinking to be able to envision different scenarios.
Navigating, not just floating.
I can see that this is a prime reason why we waste years and sometimes decades in the wrong job, with the wrong person, etc…something we should have adapted out of much sooner. Something where we could have consciously looked ahead and noticed that it was going nowhere good, and chosen to adapt accordingly.
Another principle is that life does not go to people with single strong attributes. Hmm. I never looked at it this way. But I can see that it takes multiple skills to survive and thrive, not just one great attribute.
It’s a principle that we don’t have generations to change and adapt slowly…we have ONE LIFE, and the speed with which we adapt and evolve is the speed with which we can get what we want out of life.
Everything we have learned opposes this idea.
I believe most people have been raised to see things as black and white…I certainly was. There’s a great principle here – that the second we see things as black and white, we violate adaptability. Wow-that’s big…and so true. Once we call something black or white, there’s no room for adaptation, no room for any other scenarios or interpretations. The moment we call something ‘wrong’, due to some rule we learned or made up…ugh…the moment I say I’m not where I should be…there’s no movement in that.
He gives a great example of adaptability in Sam Walton, a man who was known to be not afraid to fail. Also Jeff Bezos, who wanted to change the way people buy things – a huge undertaking, where you would have to be able to see that as a possibility. He didn’t see failure as a ‘black or white’. The principle is that not everything is a ‘pass or fail’ outcome.
So interesting to look at what he said about Thomas Edison, who said he said he makes more mistakes than anyone, and he ended up patenting them all… meaning there were many many failures leading up to each one of those things he ended up patenting. Almost nobody has that tenaciousness – I would be a giant ball of feeling like a loser, a failure, worse than everyone else, which seems to really mean nothing but self-absorbed.
A principle here is that as long as it was in something that gets us towards our goal, it can’t be a mistake or a failure…it’s an EXPERIMENT.
If a failed business for example is seen as an EXPERIMENT that helps us to adapt & build better skills, that’s the way to look at it, rather than a black or white failure.
A whole different interpretation of the same thing, where there’s a possibility for forward movement.
I would say it’s a principle that too many of us sit in judgment of ourselves…we’re our own judge and jury, and we beat ourselves up, which I’m a poster child for. But it’s all only another way of avoiding taking responsibility.
He mentions Colonel Sanders and all of the different jobs and professions he took on in his life… and how he saw things in an adaptable framework, not a black and white framework. That’s really interesting as well, seeing things in an adaptable framework. I wonder how he developed that way of seeing the world.
He flipped and reversed the black & white mentality, to where he seemed to see everything as adaptable, something to build on to the next thing.
It’s a principle that it’s very hard to sit in judgement of things, so we should stop judging ourselves. Also that in order to be successful, we must be an adaptability machine, who sheds off the ‘black & white’ ideas of society.
A lot of the many failures that Col. Sanders encountered came from things that were outside of his control, probably failures that he couldn’t foresee, and yet the circumstance didn’t dictate his next moves, he seems to have chosen each one with a desired outcome in mind.
The principle here is that change is a basic law of nature, and it’s the law of life. Life-changing accidents happen, things happen with our bodies and our health, nothing in life is static.
Also a principle that there’s not just one way that is correct-everybody is different, it’s up to each one of us to deliberate and find the one that is adaptable, be it a diet suited to our bodies, a skill or job suited to our talents and passions, a relationship well-suited for a give-and-take complementary relationship, whatever it is, in any area of life.
I see a principle in ‘Evolutionary Stable Strategy is something we can develop, IF we can eliminate black and white thinking‘…if we think our plan will go only one particular way and have only one specific outcome, we’re bound to fail.
I would say it’s a principle that a successful business is a series of experiments. I like this principle from Charlie Munger in the context of being adaptable…every night, go to bed not only a little smarter, but also having removed one little piece of ignorance that you picked up somewhere during your life.
I’m sure hat’s not as easy as it sounds…simple, but not easy…but what a difference it would make. Looking at what to replace black & white thinking with, this is where the evolutionary stable strategy comes in, what we should adopt as our framework to see things through…
Everything we do should be seen as an experiment
I would say that’s a principle, for seeing things through an adaptability framework rather than a black & white.
Meaning: Try something, and if it doesn’t work, adapt and try something different, just like how it happens in nature. He gives such a cool example of how cows eat grass and also leave beneficial bacteria in their saliva to help the grass regrow – definitely a win-win there.
The principle here is that it’s not a stable strategy to be extreme in one way or another… I can see that there’s no room for movement in extreme. Also a principle that all places in the world strike balances. There’s never completely, 100% black and white…it’s not a stable strategy.
Far better to look at things through Newton’s law, that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. What a great way to look at life, far better than being black and white and obsessed with one piece of minutia, which I see myself doing repeatedly throughout my own life, mainly being obsessed with myself and my lack of accomplishment – what a useless thing to become obsessed with.
I would say it’s a principle that every relationship we have has an element of ESS to it, meaning they want something from you, and you want something from them.
It’s a principle that we can’t fall prey to the certainty bias – we can’t choose one thing and call it wrong, or that it should be something different, and fixate on that. Ugh-that’s an ugly look in the mirror.
I would say that the great authors and philosophers throughout time do not think like the masses, and did not think in black and white like the rest of us. In all of Col. Sanders ‘failed’ businesses, he lost money, but he got something back, and adapted…his failed businesses were experiments, something to learn from and build upon.
The principle is that if we want to have success, we must STOP whatever we’re doing, and learn this adaptability – it’s a MUST. I can see why this is a must…without this we eliminate the possibility of growth, of forward movement, in whatever area it is.
Looking at a stable strategy
Looking at a stable strategy as one that is stable enough to be resilient to outside threats… I think something as simple as you giving me some attitudes to focus on and a self-image to take on before going home to visit relatives is an example of this – it helped me handle situations much better that, you could foresee, would otherwise have been a real stumbling block.
Instead of freaking out and dreading what’s coming, I could bring with me somewhat of an ESS to help me navigate through. Being able to see through this framework, and do this with the different changes that come with every business, every relationship, every economic shift, it would be a game-changer…it would be a functional mindset as opposed to sitting around lamenting what just changed and being one of the ones that ‘wondered what happened’.
I like this next principle, that it’s not THINKING your way through it, it’s ADAPTING your way through it. It seems the difference between thinking through and adapting through is the difference between seeing through my own filter or seeing the big picture from the sideline view. It’s also a valuable principle not to adapt for the sake of adapting…like throwing something out the second something trips up – there would be nothing extreme or knee-jerk about the implementation of this.
Another principle is, the way to pull off adaptability is to read the obvious signs, and to consciously do it. The beginning of adaptability is to be able to read what’s in front of you…meaning having the AWARENESS to consciously look at what’s in front of us, and being willing to take the responsibility to look and make decisions about what we see.
I could see where positive thinking would thwart this
I could see where positive thinking would thwart this – it seems like just another way of black & white thinking, just calling something ‘good’ or ‘OK’…no room for contemplating, or considering things that might happen. I would say it’s a principle that our brains and our genes don’t always point us in the right direction.
And a great principle in, strike a deal that is STABLE – with yourself, with your body, with your business, with creating wealth…be WILLING to see the signs, and look, and adapt.
Maybe it’s developing new skills when we see business is changing, or watching trends to see where we may need to adapt in the future. I love the concept of ‘striking a deal’ – it opens up the possibility of finding a win-win, and it makes it necessary to consider all sides, not just my own, and of causing an outcome rather than falling into one.
Interesting that Sam Walton was never ‘attached’ to his business ideas…when he saw something that worked better, he readily adapted and changed to what worked better – he didn’t see black and white.
It’s a principle that when the current strategy starts to become unstable, build a new stable strategy. And also an important one that you have to be willing to be unstable for a bit… this really hit home as well, as I think of all of the times where I, and many others I’ve known, have seen some signs, but the idea of changing our situations was so uncertain that it seemed unclear if we would be better off staying where we are than the alternative.
Huge fear of being unstable, and not knowing the outcome.
The principle here is that once we know this, we have the responsibility to say ‘I’m a changing machine’. Also a principle that there’s no black and white perfect person or business partner or scenario or diet… whatever works at one point will change, and we will have to be able to anticipate that and adapt. To ‘ask why three times’, and to ask ‘why does something I’ve always done have to be something I’ll always do?’
The biggest thing that I see in this step is that there are no black & whites. As he puts it, nobody loves you unconditionally that doesn’t know you – relationships, businesses, wealth, every area – have to be give and take, there has to be some experimenting.
What you wrote in yesterday’s article is a perfect principle for this one, that change is constant, and being vigilant is mandatory, if we want to be well. Or as I see it if we want to be a success in any area…and not paranoid, but vigilant. I also see a principle in ‘as we feel more fulfilled, we’ll know that we are developing a stable strategy’.
But we can only develop a stable strategy by taking the responsibility to be vigilant, to observe from a viewpoint where we see the whole picture, or where we see the world without ourselves in the center of it, with the intent to ‘drive’ it.
There was SO much in this step…
…so much about being observant and movable, not rigid – there’s a much lighter feeling about this, about nothing being set in stone, and even failures can be built upon as steps towards the next experiment… Failures are not all about me and whether I passed or failed, they’re just experiments that worked or didn’t, and then on to the next one.