Overcoming the Red Queen problem
With the insatiable need for new ideas in anything and everything we do just to keep pace with the continual onslaught of change we face every day (aka the Red Queen Effect)
I’m always surprised by how many people come to meetings, events, or presentations and fail bring a notebook or some other means to capture / record / diarize whatever comes up, including but not limited to:
- stuff that struck you at any point
- anything to do with what was or was not discussed
- stuff you plan to do afterward
- stuff you plan to stop doing
- suggestions
- questions
- useful resources
- stories shared or remembered afterward
- doodles / diagrams / maps / etc.
- random scribbles made for processing purposes
- or any of the random elusive thoughts about unrelated topics that float by as they so often do.
In my view, it is absolutely essential to capture whatever you can before it’s forced out of your mind by subsequent events, such as life, coffee, lunch, traffic bottlenecks, etc.
Why? Because these captured fragments introduce new patterns into the kaleidoscope showing your path forward,
And, when viewed in the right light, the new may picture indeed hold the keys to your next step(s).
Photo by Green Chameleon on Unsplash
