"It is the people who figure out how to work simply in the present, rather than the people who mastered the complexities of the past, who get to say what happens in the future."
Clay Shirky
This morning Twitter suggested I follow Clay Shirky. And I did. And I read his blog post on the collapse of complex business models, which ends with that quote.
It seems self-evident and yet, when so much needs to change, we still seem to struggle with bureaucracy. We strive to learn the rules first, and then play the game, rather than playing the game and learning the rules as we go. We have become too averse to mistakes. Is this because the punishment is severe? Or the risk of failure is high? That the dangers are too many, too unpredictable, too catastrophic. Do we have too much to lose?
In many ways, it's another version of Anaïs Nin words...
And then the day came,
when the risk
to remain tight
in a bud
was more painful
than the risk
it took
to Blossom.
So as winter loses it's grip on Melbourne, that seems a fitting thought with which to walk into the world.