"Flux" is about accepting change
“Flux” as a lifestyle philosophy applies to both my personal life and business life. I wanted to discuss Flux in relation to the business environment, and how it may be useful in mentally navigating the chaos we deal with daily. I find it easiest to think of Flux like building sandcastles on a beach immediately before high-tide. You know the water is coming, but you build the castle anyway. And you don’t just do it once, but over and over again.
1) You succumb to the fact your creation is being broken down by the lapping waves. Sometimes gently, and other times consumed in a violent storm.
2) You are now faced with having to learn from what you’ve just experienced. And then let it go.
3) Go forward, build again. Build teams, build processes, build networks.
The challenge is in accepting that you are balancing on the edge of a thin wall while waiting for that wave to bear down on you again.
I’ve said before, that every good philosophy has ties to hard science somewhere, and what better example is there of flux and fluidity than human brain plasticity. More specifically, structural plasticity. Our neocortex is shockingly similar to other mammals, and even reptiles for that matter. Human’s departure from our primate ancestors is far too complex to pin to a single portion of the brain or how the areas interact. There is no singular structure or feature of the brain that makes us “human”. But human brains, unlike other primates, do have a distinct ability to take in a greater dynamic range of inputs and synthesize them. For example, the language tract, arcuate fasciculus, reaches far beyond the typical termination points, supporting the transmission of word-meaning information. And guess what else? We can actually change the physical structure of our brains as a result of learning.
The inherent plasticity of our brains is so beautifully similar to this ebb and flow of Flux I'm speaking of that I can't help but believe our lives are an extension of our biology.
So this fundamental and conceptual linkage I’m trying to share with you is that our brains are amazingly adept. On a cellular level, you are passively participating in Flux every single day. Good or bad, your learnings are transforming the tracts in your brain— synaptic pruning is occurring without conscious effort, and you are experiencing anatomical change as a result of experience.
Read any business news source for long enough and you’ll notice how many companies are describing themselves as “disruptive”. I think it’s over-used for the most part.
Most self-proclaimed "disruptors" are offering little more than step-wise or incremental improvements over whatever current offering they're competing against. Rarely do we have the pleasure of witnessing truly quantum-level changes take place.
That’s fine. My only offering is that “disruptive” or not, people can all benefit from embracing the chaos and becoming accustomed to it. Learning from it. Welcoming it.
References
Doidge, Norman (2007). The Brain That Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the frontiers of brain science. New York: Viking.
Gopnic, A., Meltzoff, A., Kuhl, P. (1999). The Scientist in the Crib: What Early Learning Tells Us About the Mind, New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers.
Rilling, James (2015). Human uniqueness compared to “Great Apes”: Likely Difference. Center for Academic Research & Training in Anthropogeny.
Kolb, B., & Gibb, R. (2011). Brain plasticity and behaviour in the developing brain. Journal of the Canadian Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. 20(4), 265-276.
