Cities are ecosystems of constructive and destructive forces: think of bees and flies

CorporateNature No 139

There are two extremes in human behaviour: constructive and destructive. Constructive activities develop and produce new things, e.g. knowledge, infrastructure and all kinds of human structures that reduce entropy (chaos). On the other hand, destructive activities reduce to ruin existing structures and add to chaos - from a human point of view at least (nature would be free to disagree with us what is constructive and what is destructive).

In the animal world, two insects can represent reasonably well these two extremes: bees and flies.

1. THE CONSTRUCTIVE HONEY BEE

Honey bees are notoriously hardworking, disciplined and organised, as well as forming incredibly complex societies. The result of their productivity is complex structures (honeycombs) and sophisticated products such as honey, royal jelly, beeswax and propolis.

2. THE DESTRUCTIVE HOUSEFLY

To a human, the common housefly is the destructive yin to the honey bee’s constructive yang. Flies spread disease and lay eggs that grow into larvae in the dirtiest places in your house. There is a neat way to get rid of flies, though, without getting your hands dirty: all you need to do is open the window and let it fly back to nature, where the destructive/constructive equation is not a given and not clear-cut.

3. CITIES ON THE CONSTRUCTIVE-DESTRUCTIVE SPECTRUM

Just like beehives, some cities are orderly and productive: think of the Swiss cities of Zurich and Geneva which consistently rank at the top of global quality of life indices. Other cities, especially in tropical regions and developing countries, are a giant mess, with ghettos and favelas. Even the sprawling southern US cities are not a paragon of orderliness, with their notorious traffic jams in rush hour. Therefore, we should be able to forgive Gandhi for being anti-city, having experienced the squalor of cities in India.

Yet, even messy and squalid cities are more productive compared with nomadic communities or farming communities in the countryside. If cities weren't making good use of their human capital, people wouldn't be living there. Cities create their own ecosystems, just as nature does. The constructive/destructive forces in them form a broad and diffuse spectrum, just as nature accommodates both bees and flies.

Honeycomb (image source: Wikipedia) 

SpaceTime after the Big Bang has parallels with 2020 and post-pandemic life

CorporateNature No 138

In physics, the concepts of space and time are fused together into a single four-dimensional spacetime mathematical model that describes our universe. Einstein’s theory of special relativity has made it impossible to look at space without considering time, and vice-versa.

The idea that space and time are different sides of the same coin can also be useful on a more everyday level. Consider the following:

1. THE CONDENSED SPACE OF THE BIG BANG VS. THE CONDENSED TIME OF MODERN LIFE

According to the big bang theory, all of the matter in our universe started its expansion from one single point. For hundreds of thousands of years, matter was so dense and the universe so hot that only subatomic particles existed (and for short periods of time). What is more, even if we were to go back and observe this period in the history of our universe, we wouldn’t be able to see anything.

As astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson explains “in this early epoch, photons didn’t travel far before encountering an electron. Back then, if your mission had been to see across the universe, you couldn’t. Any photon you detected had careened off an electron right in front of your nose, nano- and picoseconds earlier.”

Similarly, 21st-century life in a developed society is typically characterised by an overabundance of condensed time. We easily get swept away by the overwhelming current of day-to-day responsibilities and worries.  Everything has to happen now (even yesterday, if possible). When we are immersed in a constant state of information overload, it is easy to lose sight of what really matters in life. This constant stream of information we receive is just like the electrons knocking photons in our eyes.

2. THE EXPANDING UNIVERSE VS. THE EXPANSION OF TIME DURING THE PANDEMIC

As the universe expanded and cooled down, matter eventually became diluted enough to allow for atoms and different elements to form. This, in turn, led to the emergence of stars, galaxies, planets and, ultimately, living beings. The ideal environment for this creation process was one of less density.

The events of 2020 have forced a similar sort of expansion of our time and dilution of our daily tasks. The state of pandemic lockdown that a large part of the developed world was forced into has given us a chance to slow down. In fact, time during lockdown seems to have almost stopped compared with the pace just a few months earlier.

Living this new reality, we have come to recognise that certain lifestyle choices from the past don’t seem that appealing anymore. Suddenly, all those work emails and conferences have lost their perceived previous importance. Maybe some of us have been put off by the clutter both in our homes and in our previously hectic daily schedules. Maybe others have decided to take a new career path. But hopefully, a lot of us have learned to place greater importance on our relationships with loved ones, rather than on material possessions and social status.

This period of expanded time can be viewed as the catalyst to new opportunities. It has certainly given us plenty of time to think and plan for the future.

***

According to some theorists, the universe will expand to a certain point and then start condensing back to that point before the big bang. This is one of the great mysteries that astrophysicists face today.

What is certain, however, is that as the world returns to normalcy after the pandemic, our time will once again begin condensing into the way it was before. It is ultimately up to us to decide how we want to live once that happens.

Hopefully, we are not too quick to forget the lessons we have learned over the past few months.

Timeline of the expansion of space (image source: Wikipedia)

Selfless and self-serving jobs resemble wheat stalks and rivers

CorporateNature No 137

There are two types of jobs: selfless and self-serving. They have a lot in common with wheat and water in the metaphorical realm.

1. SELFLESS JOBS RESEMBLE SEEDS THAT SCATTER

Professions such as teaching and nursing benefit society: these vocations exist for the greater good of all people. People working in these positions spend their time and energy selflessly, often driven by the conviction that their noble efforts must help those around them. In financial slang, these people "leave money on the table" (for others to pick up), i.e. they create value that is not appropriated by themselves.

Such occupations resemble a wheat stalk that shatters and sheds its seeds on the ground. While this is not beneficial for the farmer who planted the wheat, it helps propagate future generations. 

2. SELF-SERVING JOBS ARE SEEDS THAT DO NOT SHATTER

Bankers work hard, just like nurses and teachers. However, they appropriate most of the results of their efforts for their own benefit. Ironically, they are people who work with money, yet they "don't leave money on the table" as they are better at extracting value for themselves. 

This profession resembles cereal plants that do not shatter and whose grains stay on the stalk after ripening. Although this is good for the farmer who planted the cereals as it allows harvesting the grain,  the natural process of propagating the seeds is put in jeopardy.

3. SELFLESS JOBS RESEMBLE RIVERS THAT DON'T REACH THE SEA

Another example from nature can illustrate this parallel: most rivers reach the sea and deliver their water to the ocean, give or take some evaporation and human consumption. Such rivers are like the “bankers” who keep resources to themselves.

On the other hand, a handful of rivers never reach the ocean, e.g. the Okavango in southern Africa. The Okavango irrigates a vast inland delta and subsumes itself into it. The Okavango disperses all its water into a vast and fertile wetland that creates habitats for myriads of animals and plants, just like teachers and the nurses give themselves away for the benefit of humankind.

Wheat stalk (image source: Wikipedia) 

Dividing Walls vs. House Walls symbolise Fixed Mindset vs. Growth Mindset

CorporateNature No 136

Opportunities in life come and go. These opportunities are not equal for everyone. But while you cannot pick your parents or choose where to be born, you have control over using what you have. You can use your assets and skills productively or destructively. Would you choose to unite or to divide?

1. The Wall as a Dividing Barrier

Building a wall as a barrier is the epitome of negativity: its purpose is to divide, not to unite. Your wall may be guarding what you already have or blocking others from accessing what you have, but it will also be keeping anything new and valuable from coming to you from the outside. In the short run a wall may work to your advantage but in the long run it will limit your potential to reach out to the world and achieve more.

2. The Walls of a House

Building walls to support the roof of a building is an entirely different type of wall. The walls of a house also serve as a divider but they merely separate the inside from the weather conditions outside. The walls of a house create a hospitable place for a home or a family within them. A house also connects to the outside world through the gaps in the walls we call windows and doors.

3. Fixed vs. Growth Mindset

The difference between dividing walls and constructive walls is the same difference as between the fixed mindset and the growth mindset. The Chinese proverb says it all: 

Search Results

Web results

风向转变时,有人筑墙,有人造风车

"When the wind of change blows, some build walls, while others build windmills."

House (image source: Wikipedia) 

Dung beetles and Notepad apps remove all paraphernalia

 CorporateNature No 135

1. Dung Beetle

Dung beetles are known for collecting dung and rolling it into balls which they use for food or for breeding their larvae in it. By acting out this behaviour, they play an important role in nutrient recycling: removing waste and improving soil structure and fertility. They create a level playing field out of the diverse processes in life.

2. Notepad App

The humble Notepad app performs a similar role in the computer world. By removing all formatting, fonts and styles, the Notepad programme removes the distracting bells and whistles of the internet era. This allows you to concentrate on the ideas and real writing can flourish. It is a very egalitarian and meritocratic type of tool because it makes everything equal in format. 

3. Death: the ultimate leveller

People may be rich or poor while alive, but once they are dead they are equally dead and nothing else matters. This is a universal truth we often forget or choose to ignore: It doesn’t matter how much “crap” (material or otherwise) you accumulate in a lifetime, the outcome is all the same.

Dung Beetle (image source: Wikipedia)

Tunnel vision results from tunnel focus

CorporateNature No 134

Taking a break can help break up tunnel vision; 
While exercise is best done on an empty stomach.

We've all been there. Working on a project, you encounter a seemingly unsolvable problem which drains all your mental energy. You get frustrated and take a break, grab a coffee and a snack or go for a walk. After the short break, you come back to the desk, start working again and then something miraculous happens. The solution to that tricky problem suddenly pops up in your mind effortlessly. It was almost as if there was no problem in the first place. What's that all about? 

TUNNEL VISION - TUNNEL FOCUS

When you are involved in focused mental work (studying, writing or any type of problem solving) your brain tends to zoom in on the task at hand. Most of your efforts go into trying to solve the issue you see "at the end of the tunnel", and there is no energy and processing capacity left for your brain to make sense of the full array of information available. At a certain point, when the amount of incoming information becomes too much for the brain to cope with, you become overwhelmed. The brain starts to falter.

EXERCISE COMPETES WITH DIGESTION

A similar process happens if you exercise on a full stomach:

"When you exercise, your body isn't using its energy for digestion. Instead, it slows any digestion currently taking place so it can divert as much blood as it can to feed your muscles and your lungs. If you've just eaten before exercising, you can experience gastrointestinal problems."

BREAKS & RETREATS HELP

Just as your body cannot digest food when you are exercising, so you cannot digest your thoughts and focus on the bigger picture while doing your day job. You need a break, a strategic retreat, a change of scenery. 

Albert Einstein famously played the violin whenever he encountered a problem while working on his theories. This activity gave his hands something to do and at the same time gave his brain a chance to relax, process the new information and see things with fresh eyes.

Keep this in mind the next time you're stuck on a particularly stubborn problem. The solution is very simple: take a break, change the pace, change the scenery, give your brain time to digest all that information. 

Aerobics
(image source: Wikipedia)

Three types of water taps resemble fiscal, monetary and microeconomic policy

CorporateNature No 133

Control is a fundamental concept in management and public policy. It is a continuous process of setting objectives and collecting feedback based on the results recorded in the implementation of these objectives. Ultimately, a well-functioning system of control is the key to long-term success.

There are different approaches to control, some more sophisticated than others. To illustrate these various levels of sophistication of control, let us look at an everyday metaphor: water taps.

1. Traditional British hot and cold water taps are separate:
Having hot and cold water coming out separately meant that you had to mix the water in your hands to get the right temperature, often risking scolding your hands under the hot water tap if you were unable to skillfully cool your hands with water from the cold tap at the same time. This anachronistic solution dates back to the time when the technology did not exist to separate the higher-pressure hot water from flowing into the cold water pipe if the two were connected inside the tap.

An example of such a slow-control system is macroeconomic fiscal policy, where the Government tweaks the tax rates but the results are only observed in the real economy a year or two later. The observed outcomes then inform policy, which can be adjusted in turn.

2. Old European taps mix the water but have two separate knobs:

The traditional tap familiar to most Europeans consists of a mixer and two separate control knobs for hot and cold water. Although the water comes out mixed, there is still some initial adjustment required to get the temperature right. This is a step in the right direction: the entire process is simplified, which cuts water waste and ensures a higher probability of getting consistent temperature every time. However, there is still room for improvement in the system.

An example of this system in the economy is Central Bank monetary policy. When a Central Bank reduces interest rates, the added liquidity takes about six months to work its way through the economy. 

3. Modern mixed tap with a single lever:

Modern technology allows using a single lever to set the exact temperature of a single flow of water. The modern tap saves time and keeps water waste to a minimum. This setup represents an efficient, streamlined system which allows for greater control over the whole process and guarantees an effortless experience and a consistently high standard for the user.

An example of this type of systems are the microeconomic decisions of company owners: the changes they adopt take a week to trickle down the organisational hierarchy.

4. Conclusion

If faced with the task of setting up a system of control, whether it be for personal or corporate purposes, consider the water tap metaphor. Or if you want to go a step further, follow the Chinese saying: 饮水思源 (yǐn shuǐ sī yuán) - when you drink water, think about its source. 

Water tap
(image source: Wikipedia)

Experts and Mammoths are prone to falling into traps and becoming extinct

Experts who specialise too deeply become less resilient. Mammoths who fall into deep traps tend to become extinct.
CorporateNature No 132

We live in times when deep specialisation is highly valued. Experts are traditionally associated with academia but the idea of knowing more and more about less and less (until you know everything about nothing) has also found its way into the corporate world. Yet, being an expert is not necessarily a good thing.

Many corporate jobs require an initial employee training period. These are usually designed to teach narrow skills that are mostly (if not only) useful in the employee’s current role. Thus the employee becomes an expert at their job, but for them to advance professionally, further training is required. This gives rise to a continuous process in which people specialise deeper and deeper in one area. Ultimately they end up developing narrow expertise in that area but very little else.

While deep expertise makes people more efficient at their job, becoming a narrow expert is a dangerous proposition. A narrow expert in a single area resembles a woolly mammoth that falls into a dug-out trap. If the trap is deep enough, the mammoth cannot climb out and ends up as steak on Neanderthal camp fires. Similarly, an expert developing a deep specialisations knows more and more about less and less. If they go too far down this path, they eventually end up knowing everything about nothing.

Wouldn't it be wiser and more resilient if we divided our energy and time and invested them in developing competence in multiple overlapping fields, rather than becoming a narrow expert in a single domain? Skills development benefits from diversification as much as an investment portfolio does. This would help keep the mammoth in the tundra, rather than in the trap dug out by our primitive ancestors.

Woolly mammoth
(image source: Wikipedia)

People of low ability are half-empty wine bottles that make the most noise

CorporateNature No 131

Ullage is the headspace of air between a liquid and the container holding that liquid. The ullage level is particularly important in winemaking, as too much ullage may lead to excessive oxidation which worsens the quality of the wine.

Minimising ullage makes the relationship between bottle and content more straightforward, or else a false impression about the whole package may be created. In the human world this has a parallel known as the Dunning Kruger effect: the cognitive bias of low-ability people to overestimate their abilities.

The Chinese have captured the Dunning-Kruger effect brilliantly in the expression 半瓶水响叮当 (bànpíngshuǐ xiǎng dīngdāng): "empty vessels make the most noise". Literally, this translates as “if you tap a half-empty bottle it makes a sound”. The metaphor here is that a person of low ability resembles a half-empty bottle: self-aggrandising and insecure executives are noticeably more noisy than the capable executives.

Philosopher Bertrand Russel put this even more eloquently:

“One of the painful things about our time is that those who feel certainty are stupid, and those with any imagination and understanding are filled with doubt and indecision.”

So can we try to make sure that our “ullage level” is always kept to a minimum? After all, nobody would like to open an expensive bottle of wine only to discover that its content has turned into vinegar.

Bordeaux wines with different ullage levels
(image source: Wikipedia)

Unintended Consequences: Cobras, College Grades, Potato PR

CorporateNature No 130

There are two types of unintended consequences:
1) The long tail of a probability distribution of outcomes, when the rare outcome happens to occur.

2) A chain of events that creates its own loop of consequences.

The previous CorporateNature blog post (No 129) was about some unintended consequences that occur in complex environments such as our human social systems, including the Peltzman Effect of risk-seeking behaviour when one is feeling safe.

Continuing this topic, here are three more examples of unintended consequences:

1. The Cobra Effect

The Cobra Effect is a case when an intended solution to a problem exacerbates the problem. The name "cobra effect" comes from a story from colonial India. To solve the problem of the large population of venomous snakes in Delhi, the British colonial government set a bounty for each dead cobra. At first this strategy was successful, as many snakes were killed for the reward. However, soon people started breeding cobras to profit from turning them in to the local government. The government eventually noticed it was being taken for a ride and scrapped the reward programme. This made breeders release the cobras they had been breeding into the wild, which led to an increase in the cobra population.

2. The Vietnam War & Grade Inflation

In the US, during the era of the Vietnam War in the 1960s, students with high grades were exempted from the draft for the war (conscription). This meant that giving someone a low grade could send someone to war, and possibly cost their life. As a result, professors became much more hesitant to give someone a C and gravitated towards handing out higher grades.

3. Potato PR

Potatoes were domesticated in South America some 10,000 years ago and were introduced to Europe after the voyages of Columbus. However, local European farmers and peasants did not take to them. Appreciating the nutritious potential of this new plant, Prussian king Frederick the Great came up with a public relations stunt to convince people that potatoes are worth it. He had his servants plant a field of potatoes and stationed a heavy guard tasked with pretending to be guarding the field. Naturally, the local peasants assumed that the crop on the king's land must be valuable and started to sneak into the field and steal potatoes for their own gardens. This had exactly been Frederick's intention and the mission was accomplished exactly because the peasants thought their stealing of potatoes was an unintended consequence.

Indian cobra
(image source: Wikipedia)

Human systems are rife with unintended consequences

CorporateNature No 129

As the name suggests, the sociological term “unintended consequences” refers to unforeseen  outcomes of purposeful actions. They occur in complex social systems due to the large number of variables involved in the functioning of these systems.

In the simplified world of Newtonian physics, for every action in nature, there is an equal and opposite reaction (Newton's 3rd Law of Motion). In such a system, outcomes are easy to predict.

In contrast, human social systems are complex, sometimes bordering on chaotic, so the action-reaction equation does not necessarily hold true. More often than not, there are unintended consequences.

A classic source of unintended consequences is the Peltzman Effect. The Peltzman Effect, or risk compensation, occurs after the implementation of safety measures intended to reduce injury or death (e.g. bike helmets, seat belts, etc.). While people may feel safer than they really are, they take additional risks which they would not have taken without the safety measures in place. This may result in an increase in mortality, rather than the decrease that was initially intended.

Here are some examples of the Peltzman Effect:

1. Anti-lock brakes

Anti-lock brakes were introduced in Germany in the late 1970s. Contrary to government expectations, instead of decreasing fatal car accidents by 10-15%, the drivers of cars fitted with anti-lock brakes became more likely to engage in risky driving. Studies found that drivers would trust their new braking technology too much and as a result would curves at a higher speed, which increased rollovers and accidents.

2. American football helmets 

Helmets became mandatory in American football in 1943 and the risk of injury was expected to go down. Indeed, the helmets decreased the number of broken noses, teeth and jaws. However, concussion and spinal injuries actually increased and broken necks saw a staggering rise by 400%. The reason for these counterintuitive statistics was the better protection that helmets gave to players, so the players actually started using the helmets as an offensive weapon, just like battering rams.

3. Airbags and children left in cars

Airbags are another pertinent example of the Peltzman Effect. Passenger-side airbags were intended to increase safety but actually started hurting and killing child passengers as children were vulnerable to being hit by a deploying airbag during a collision. This led to the child seat being moved to the back of cars, which in turn resulted in another unexpected consequence: an increase in the number of babies and children inadvertently left behind in locked vehicles.

1959 Volvo 122, the first mass-produced car with seatbelts as standard equipment
(image source: Wikipedia) 

Appearances and packaging are important, even if sometimes deceiving

CorporateNature metaphor series, No 128

STORY 1: David Ogilvy & the beggar

A 1950s story tells the vivid history of advertising guru David Ogilvy. Ogilvy was working as a copywriter and would pass by a blind beggar on a street corner every day. The beggar held a sign: "I'M BLIND. PLEASE HELP." Pedestrians would usually walk past, ignoring the beggar. One day, the copywriter decided to help the man. He took out a marker and scribbled something on the sign. From that day on, the blind man's luck turned and his cup was always full of coins. The copywriter had changed the sign to: "IT'S SPRING AND I'M BLIND. PLEASE HELP"

STORY 2: Seven Up & the Lemon flavour of yellow

Malcolm Gladwell tells this soft drinks story in his bestseller "Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking." Fooling the brain with external visual stimulus is remarkably easy. It turns out that with the addition of only 15% more yellow colouring to the package of 7 Up, consumers consistently report a stronger lemon flavour. Similarly, the colour jelly taste test reveals just how essential appearances are for our brain to make a judgement call on whether something would taste good or not.

STORY 3: Kintsugi brings into the open what is often hidden.

Kinsukuroi (金繕い,  "kintsugi" or "golden repair) is the medieval Japanese technique of repairing broken pottery by gluing together broken fragments with a gold-mix paste. The idea is that the cracks where the item was broken are part of its history and should be showcased, rather than trying to hide them as defects. Collectors during some periods became so enamoured of this popular art form that some would even go as far as deliberately smashing valuable pottery so it could be repaired with the gold seams of kinsukuroi.

STORY 4: Zhuangzi parable about the monkey trainer

Chinese daoist philosopher Zhuangzi tells the story of a monkey trainer who was giving his monkeys acorns during training: three in the morning and four at night. This was considered unjust by some of the monkeys, and they got furious with their trainer. To alleviate the situation, the trainer suggested: "Why don't I switch this around: four nuts in the morning and three at night." The monkeys were all delighted.

5. CONCLUSION

Whether it's about a quick edit on the go, changing the taste of food by changing colour, turning a seeming flaw into a decorative feature, or using rhetoric to get your point across, the importance of external appearance is ever-present and of extreme importance. Consider this next time you go for a job interview.

Kintsugi: golden repair of a broken plate corner
(image source: Wikipedia)

All illusions are unreal but some are useful

Three stories approach illusion from different perspectives: money, religion & technology.
All illusions are unreal, but some are useful.

CorporateNature metaphor series, No 127

STORY 1: SOUND OF MONEY PAYS FOR SMELL OF SOUP
A beggar once sneaked into the kitchen of an inn and held a piece of bread over a pot of soup, hoping that the vapour of the soup would give flavour to his bread. The innkeeper caught him, accused him of stealing and demanded that the man pay for a soup. As the beggar had no money, he was brought to the local judge, Nasreddin Hodja. After hearing the story, Nasreddin Hodja decided to pay the innkeeper himself ... with merely the sound of throwing several coins on the table. It seemed like a fair deal: the sound of money paid for the smell of soup, one illusion for another.  

STORY 2: HOW A BUDDHIST SEES THE MOON

According to Buddhism, reality (dharma) exists but the unenlightened individual can only see it as an illusion. To practice mindfulness is to catch a fleeting glimpse of what is behind the veil of this illusion - the essence of reality. Buddha uses an apt analogy to explain this concept. Imagine the Moon (reality itself) and a reflection of it in a shallow puddle (our attempts to look at reality as it is). While the Moon is always in the sky, its reflection in the puddle remains only until the water evaporates. 

STORY 3: IS LIFE A COMPUTER SIMULATION?

Swedish philosopher Nick Bostrom goes even further than the Buddhists. He proposes that reality itself could be an artificial computer simulation. Bostrom argues that computing power in the future will be much greater than what it is today, and that future generations may use this power to run detailed simulations of reality. Given enough computing power and an adequate scientific understanding of "consciousness", it is possible that these simulated realities could include conscious beings. Thus, Bostrom surmises, if any sophisticated civilisation is able to and decides to run such a simulation, our own reality is quite likely a computer simulation itself, created by someone else. 

CONCLUSION

Each of us faces illusions on a daily bases: from dreams at night, to the computer in the office, to a movie in the cinema. To paraphrase the famous statistician George Box: all illusions are unreal, but some are useful. Is looking at the Moon in a puddle one of the useful ones?

Virtual reality headset
(image source: Wikipedia)

Opportune moments come few and far between. Cicadas wait 17 years for one

Three stories about revenge, insects and fires tackle the principle of "bide your time" and wait for the opportunity
CorporateNature metaphor series, No 126

STORY 1: ROYAL REVENGE IN ANCIENT CHINA
The Chinese idiom 卧薪尝胆 (wò xīn cháng dǎn) - literally "to sleep on firewood and taste gallbladder" - today means "to undergo self-imposed hardship to strengthen one's resolve for revenge". The story behind this idiom takes place in China's Warring States period. Towards the end of the 5th century B.C., the king of Wu attacked the state of Yue and took king Gou Jian of Yue as his prisoner. Gou Jian spent the next three years as personal servant to the king of Wu. During this time, he diligently followed every order of the king of Wu. He maintained the memory of his humiliation by subjecting himself to the harsh experience of sleeping on firewood spread across the floor and regularly eating gallbladder. By doing this, he "burned the bridges" towards forgiveness and didn't let go of his desire for vengeance. When Gou Jian eventually returned to Yue, he raised an army and conquered Wu.

STORY 2: THE 17-YEAR LIFE CYCLE OF CICADAS
The North American periodical cicada (Magicicada) is an insect with an extraordinary life cycle. For 13 or 17 years the larvae of these creatures lie dormant underground in the root of trees, drinking sap and waiting for the opportune moment to begin their adult life. Their life cycle is exactly 13 or 17 years (for different species) to allow all insects to emerge synchronised at the same time. The prime number of years appears to be an evolutionary adaptation against predators, who are unlikely to be able to synchronise their life cycles over such a long period. "If a brood were to emerge in cycles divisible by a smaller number, then local predators could reap rewards by synchronising their own shorter cycles and emerge in large numbers exactly when the cicadas appear. The large prime number of years saves the cicadas' skin (or rather shell).

STORY 3: ARCTIC FIRES CAN HIBERNATE
When you think of recent natural disasters, the fires in California or Australia spring to mind. But did you know that there are fires in the Arctic and they can smoulder under the snow for a year, keeping burning throughout the harsh Arctic winter. These "zombie fires" find oxygen-rich underground pockets in the peat layer where they can hibernate during the winter and reactivate when the weather allows. Some of the Siberian wildfires of 2019 have been hibernating underground and are coming to the surface again only now when the summer weather is offering a good opportunity.

CONCLUSION
When faced with a monumental task, the principle of "bide your time" is a good bet. Instead of diving in at the first instance, often it is better to withdraw and wait for the opportune moment... for 17 years if need be, if you are a cicada.

Mars rover "Opportunity"
(image source: Wikipedia)

Action Substitution: China's Trojan Horse were Five Stone Cows

CorporateNature Metaphor Series No 125

What do stone cow statues, Tom Sawyer, and viruses have in common? 

STORY 1: THE TROJAN HORSE OF ANCIENT CHINA - THE STORY OF THE "STONE CATTLE ROAD" (石牛道)
During the Warring States period of Ancient China, King Huiwen of Qin wished to conquer the state of Shu to the south, over the Qinling Mountains, and devised a cunning plan. He had his sculptors fashion five life-sized stone cows with gold hindquarters and offered them as a present to the king of Shu, on condition that Shu had to build a stone road for the cows to be delivered. The king of Shu built the stone road and Qin used the road to conquer Shu in 316 BC.

STORY 2: TOM SAWYER'S POWERS OF PERSUASION
In one of the most iconic stories in American literature, Mark Twain explains the art of persuasion using his characteristic sense of humour. Twain's character Tom Sawyer is made to whitewash his aunt's fence as punishment. Using a clever reverse psychology ploy, Tom manages to convince the neighbourhood boys that whitewashing a fence is not tedious work but an enjoyable pastime. In the end, all the boys start paying Tom to be allowed to paint the fence. As Mark Twain himself put it: "He had discovered a great law of human action, without knowing it - namely, that to make a man or a boy covet a thing, it is only necessary to make the thing difficult to attain."

STORY 3: WHY A NON-LIVING VIRUS HIJACKS YOUR BODY
A story closer to the current time and the Covid-19 pandemic involves the mechanism through which viruses propagate and spread. The general consensus nowadays is that viruses exist in a "grey area" between the living and the non-living. A virus cannot survive in the open nor replicate on its own. It instead hijacks a living host's system to produce more copies of itself. While it is "non-living", it interacts with the host in a way that resembles the survival instincts of a living organism.

4. CONCLUSION

Whether the goal is to conquer a state, paint a fence, or hijack a host organism, the mechanics  are similar and the principle is straightforward: if you can get someone else to invest time and energy to fulfil your objective, why not do it? This is the principle of action substitution.

"You scratch my back..." Keep scratching! End of story!

Tom Sawyer painting the fence
(images source: Wikipedia)

Capitalists are fruit pickers: they only take a cut. Communists and pig farmers take it all

Capitalism resembles picking fruit. Communism resembles slaughtering animals.
CorporateNature Metaphor Series No 124

1. FRUIT TREES & CAPITALISM 
We plant trees and crops in expectation of a return on investment. When we pick the fruit of a tree, we are taxing the tree a percentage of its accumulated carbon and sugar, year after year. Yet, the tree preserves whatever growth does not come in the shape of fruit. This resembles the capitalist system where different people takes a cut at various levels but there is still an incentive for the tree to keep producing.

2. LIVESTOCK & COMMUNISM
When we slaughter farm animals, this is extreme taxation: we impose a 100% tax on the growth of the animal and take everything that the animal has accumulated, including the animal's life. This resembles the communist system where all surplus is expropriated by the state. No wonder that communist regimes collapse as people have no incentive to either produce or not to waste resources.

3. COMPARISON
Ironically, a vegetarian diet of eating fruit is capitalist, while eating meat is communist. Capitalists seem to be good at "milking" the goose that lays the golden eggs, while communists go for the jugular and bring both the goose and the golden eggs to an abrupt end (while promising a bright future).

Livestock
(image source: Wikipedia)

Writing a book is like breaking lake ice with a hammer

To succeed: Strike the ice with a hammer in one place; and write in one voice on a single topic.

CorporateNature Metaphor Series, No 123

Writing a book is a long-term commitment to a daunting project: it requires continuous effort in the same direction. In nature, this process resembles breaking lake ice in the winter to create a fishing hole. Here are the key similarities: 

1. Book-writing and ice-breaking require multiple blows

Every book begins with an idea in the author’s mind. The aim of the author is to formulate this idea clearly and build an argument around it that is convincing enough to “hammer” the key points home. A compelling argument evolves over the space of multiple chapters where each consecutive chapter builds on the previous one, going deeper into the subject matter. Metaphorically speaking, each chapter represents a hammer blow on the surface of the frozen lake. With each blow, the ice gets weaker and the end goal of breaking it draws nearer.

2. Striking in a focal point works better than scraping and thinning a wider area

When writing, it is essential to have the core idea firmly fixed in your mind in order to keep each chapter focused on the topic. While different chapters view the topic from different angles, they are all directed towards the same end. Getting distracted by chasing multiple topics will not get you space on the shelves of the bookstores. Similarly, breaking the surface of a frozen lake requires blows in the same spot. After all, you won’t make a hole in the ice by scraping and thinning a wide area of the ice sheet with a knife.

3. Editing is gnawing

Editing is a crucial aspect of successful writing. The editing process is gruelling work because it requires making tough choices. In nature, Arctic seals in the winter need to maintain the holes in the ice sheet to be able to come out on the surface to breathe. They do this by constantly gnawing ice off the edges of the hole to keep it from freezing over. Similarly, editing requires constant gnawing, milling and perfecting of the text and ultimately of the ideas. 

And when you eventually succeed in digging a hole in the ice, be careful not to drop the hammer in the lake. You may need it for digging another hole, i.e. writing another book.

Ice on Lake Baikal in winter
(image source: Wikipedia)

Linear careers differ from portfolio careers just like a tree trunk differs from a coppice

Linear careers are like single tree trunks. 
Portfolio careers branch out like a coppice.
CorporateNature Metaphor Series, No 122

1. Some careers are straight tree trunks:

Many career paths are stable and predictable. If you pursue a career in medicine, you know the steps you need to take: study for years and invest consistent effort in one direction to obtain a specialisation. 

2. Other careers are crooked trees:
The tree trunk of a linear career is not always straight, just as trees don't always grow perfectly straight. In fact, German philosopher Immanuel Kant said that "out of the crooked timber of humanity, no straight thing was ever made." If you change direction, e.g. move from finance to teaching, the sharp turn would result in a crooked tree in the forest of life. Also, there may be smaller career hiccups (e.g. gaps and sabbaticals) that create knots in the wood grain. Yet, the resulting trunk after 30 or 40 years is still a single massive block of wood.

3. Portfolio careers are shaped like a coppice:
Some people have portfolio careers: a diversified set of activities, such as consultancy, entrepreneurship, sitting on corporate boards, volunteering for charities. This model resembles a coppice. Coppicing is done by cutting down a tree to the ground, so that multiple shoots come out from the stump and grow into a bunch of (thinner) trees. Coppicing stimulates growth and increases the yield of harvested timber. By foregoing a linear career, you get a more interesting and diversified portfolio career which may result in a bigger timber harvest, i.e. higher income compared with a single salary job.

4. A "tree trunk" or a "coppice" career is mostly down to choice
Most trees can be coppiced: typically hazel, ash, willow, elm, beech, oak, chestnut. However, a small number of trees are not amenable to coppicing, for example birch. So it is of paramount importance for the "birches" among us to know that they should not pursue portfolio careers.

Coppice tree
(image source: Wikipedia)

Language learning resembles vine training. Planting in solid ground helps

Learning a language "vocabulary first" is like training a vine on a metal frame.
Learning a language "grammar first" is like building a vertical garden.
CorporateNature Metaphor Series, No 121

Learning a language is a lengthy and demanding process. It requires hours of reading boring grammar rules and doing tedious exercises. However, this is by no means the most efficient way to reach conversational fluency in a foreign language. 

1. CASE IN HISTORY: MEZZOFANTI
Cardinal Giuseppe Mezzofanti was a hyperpolyglot known to speak more than 30 languages fluently. Reportedly, he was able to pick up a new language within weeks. How did he do it?

Entrepreneur Tim Ferriss explains the method Mezzofanti used: Whenever he would start learning a new language, Mezzofanti would ask a native speaker to recite the Lord’s Prayer. By doing this, he was able to deconstruct the target language and reveal its basic grammatical structures. This proved to be a more than sufficient framework upon which he could then develop further his knowledge of the new language.

2. VOCABULARY LEARNING IS LIKE VINE TRAINING

The Mezzofanti approach gives the learner a lot of vocabulary and merely a basic set of grammatical rules around which to start organising the vocabulary. This process is similar to growing a vine (the language) in the ground and training it on a metal frame (the basic set of grammatical rules). When the vine shoots are just above the ground, they hardly need the frame at all. Over time, as the vine grows, it needs to be tied to the frame so that it keeps growing straight (adhering to the grammatical framework).

3. GRAMMAR-CENTRED LEARNING IS LIKE BUILDING A VERTICAL GARDEN

In contrast, learning a language by first instilling a complete grammatical framework is a much more labour-intensive process that focuses on the wrong priority. Grammatical rules are of no use without  words and expressions. Speaking the language should come first, not be left as a mere afterthought. The unnatural (forced) "grammar first" learning process resembles building a vertical garden, with plants growing not in the ground but on the vertical framework itself. "Grammar first" learning takes longer and requires a lot more effort, just like setting up a vertical garden wall and populating it with plants is harder to start and maintain than planting a vine in the ground. 

4. PRIORITIES AND RESULTS

After all, wine comes from the grapes, not from the metal frame to which the vine is attached.

Vine training
(image source: Wikipedia)