Today's moment of inspiration came while watching the Spanish fail miserably to muster any sort of defence of their World Cup. The same Spain that have basically beaten all comers for the past eight years. They haven't changed much - yeah they are a touch older but surely that isn't the whole story? So what is the difference?
It appears to be good old fashioned evolution, though on a slightly quicker timescale. Other teams have worked out how they play and adapted to cope. Spain have stood still and everyone else has caught them up and overtaken them. In a relatively short space of time as well. It is a trait that never ceases to amaze me in our species.
Our speed of adaptability, the pace at which we process information and the way we problem solve is truly staggering. As I move into the next phase of my career I see it more and more often now - the process of assimilating data, formulating potential answers, testing those theories and then implementing the desired solution. We don't always get it right but our adaptability and ingenuity sometimes really does leave me amazed.
I wrote a post awhile ago bemoaning our inability to come up with new things and new ideas, instead preferring to rehash old ideas. I think a large part of that is still true and I suspect looking back that my frustration came more from a sense of knowing what we CAN achieve, but seem unable or unwilling to do so. The speed of thought and the scale of imagination are really quite spectacular when we feel the need or the inclination.
The trick with all these things is obviously to make sure you identify the correct problems to solve, and then don't be afraid to innovate, improvise and adapt. With that as the approach, we can probably work pretty much anything out. Certainly you don't want to be the ones caught standing still and watching.
Till next time,
DT
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