"We grow in direct proportion to the amount of chaos we can sustain and dissipate," wrote Nobel laureate Ilya Prigogine. The Belgian physicist and physical chemist demonstrated that systems in non-equilibrium conditions can spontaneously organize and transition to a higher state of order.
We are used to thinking of a person or a company as a physical or corporate body. It’s a solid, tangible, and stable structure that can be grasped, manipulated, and changed.
But there’s another perspective—a metaphor of a vortex or whirlpool.
Try to contain it! The whirlpool exists, but it’s elusive. Born in turbulence from colliding a water flow with a rock, it draws energy from the disorder, dispersing it outward.
The more chaos it can endure and disperse, the stronger and longer it lasts. The whirlpool dies when the flow of external energy is depleted or, conversely, rises too sharply.
However, in the latter case, there’s a chance that the destabilized system will self-organize into a new, more complex order in response to the changed environment.
Importantly, from the perspective of the whirlpool, disorder is not evil but beneficial. As one Reddit commentator aptly noted, “Chaos is the water of life.”
The intrigue is that we don’t know our true potential—what novelty will destroy or elevate us. Everything becomes clear only when we look back, having already made a qualitative leap.
Sincerely yours,
-Alexander
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As a business therapist, I help tech founders quickly solve dilemmas at the intersection of business and personality, and boost company value as a result.
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