Douglas Adams, creator of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy:
Imagine a puddle waking up one morning and thinking, “This is an interesting world I find myself in–an interesting hole I find myself in–fits me rather neatly, doesn’t it? In fact, it fits me staggeringly well, must have been made to have me in it!” This is such a powerful idea that as the sun rises in the sky and the air heats up and as, gradually, the puddle gets smaller and smaller, it’s still frantically hanging on to the notion that everything’s going alright, because this world was meant to have him in it, was built to have him in it; so the moment he disappears catches him rather by surprise. I think this may be something we need to be on the watch out for.
Join the mooc and do your Daily Feedback Question (DFQ #05):
Watch out that we don’t spent our time on this planet just asking stupid questions. Watch out we are not falling asleep. It is not about you. Everything is as it is. Be brutally honest with yourself and open your eyes.
Slap ourselves up and wake the hell up.
You are not a puddle nor you are you. You are just awareness.
We need to watch out growth and not get stuck in our views and concepts, our comfort zone.
We need to have an open mind somtimes.
Thanks.
I think we need to be on the watch out for holding on strongly to an idea/belief. If we do that, we may deny evidences that prove our idea/belief wrong.
Sadly Douglas Adams is no longer with us. Otherwise I would ask him for the sequel to “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”. My point here is that I think we need to on the watch out for a narrow frame of mind, or a limiting set of beliefs that only take us “around this galaxy”…
As I mentioned in DFQ#4, it was less than one hundred years ago, that the best astronomers among us thought that the Milky Way was our ONLY galaxy…so I suppose that we can forgive Adams for using such a “limiting” title. He did of course provide us with something to whet our appetite: He gave us the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe, and everything. What a trying time is must have been, waiting 7½ million years for the supercomputer Deep Thought to compute and check the answer!
Moore’s Law (roughly paraphrased to suit my own agenda!) states that computing power doubles every 18 months. It shows no signs of abating, after more than 30 years. In another 15 years, computers will be 1000 times more powerful. Still, the human brain remains the most complex entity in the universe (that we know of). The human brain CAN keep up with Moore’s Law…we just need to be watchful and mindful that we harness both our own minds and the power of technology.
After nearly 35 years of my business, I am constantly “watching out” for everything. Sometimes maybe “too” vigilant. The mentality of thinking everyone is a potential threat is common among my kind. The biggest threat most of the time seems to be to remember that there are many threats from the inside of the group. Not really physical in nature but social, economical, and political. The old saying of “You have to go along to get along” is not always the best route.
The environment in the broadest sense, has become so uncertain that I am not sure that we can anticipate what’s next. What I think we need to do is to build the kind of security that will enable us to respond to uncertainty and manage change. This means that we need to build reserves.
The obvious answer here is a parallel with the environment, but I think the problem goes deeper. Germany in the 1930’s saw Hitler as the way out of their poor standard of living. He provided leadership and promised growth and better times. Before they new it he had led them down a path of evil that was difficult to escape from.
Current world politics is not so different. Economically we are uncertain of the future. It is easy to place the blame for this on others, when in reality we have become a “have it now, pay for it later” society. We have forgotten the true values of life and replaced them with things.
Our politicians are only too happy to feed this greed to satisfy their own need for power. It is this we need to be mindful of.
Simple errors in judgement made over time which compound.
Change is inevitable. What is crucial today might very well be obsolete tomorrow, We must always be alert to the direction of change.