We’ve heard about equal and opposite reactions in science. We see the consequences in our lives on a daily basis. But sometimes we don’t SEE that our intentions have unintended consequences. Well, how about this graphic, found on Reddit:
Our intentions make us feel good. They drive us to continue a course of action that feels right to us. And when those actions are multiplied by the actions of thousands of people who feel just like you, that’s when the unintended consequences can rear its head in both good and bad ways. So, how do we use the results in new and better ways?
Research is a common activity that everyone uses in order to try to understand about history, so that we can predict the future. But just how easy can predicting be?
It turns out that if predictions were easy, we wouldn’t be all that interested in researching. Can you imagine a world that isn’t curious? A world that is so predictable that all of life has already been defined at the very beginning of its story?
The universe has a way of laughing at us when we make a prediction and react only to the things that we uncover. We tend to forget that we don’t know everything that there is to know. That would lead us to believe that we are greater then we truly are. At which time we would probably not be interesting in learning and growing so that we become better than we are. A cruel Catch 22 that doesn’t make the world a better place.
Did you notice anything about the image above? It didn’t just make a bigger boom, but it also changed colors. And the boom didn’t just have a central impact point, but it also had the trails at the edges that had a multitude of dependent reactions.
So, yes, believe in what you believe. But when you act upon those beliefs, remember that you’ll never figure out every potential consequence that could occur. And that’s because it’s not just you that’s involved. There are millions of us out there that will be doing our own independent actions that will lead to dependent new theories resulting from researching those pesky unintended consequences . That’s why we can never stop learning throughout our entire lifetime.
If you think that you know it all, take a look at the clip above. Did you catch every little nuance at the edges? If you didn’t then you’ve just discovered that you and the world around you are still works in progress. Information has a multitude of interpretations. Your interpretations aren’t all that can be. Just like you’re not all that you can be… until you realize that the need to keep growing requires that there’s still a lot to learn.
So LEARN from it all. Not just what impacts you, but what impacts others that aren’t you.
