How Chaos Theory Tremendously Impacts Our Lives
And what we can learn from it
If you have ever watched Jurassic Park or played Life is Strange, you know what I am saying.
Chaos Theory is one of the most attractive theories in the physics world.
It is the mathematical scheme behind chaotic systems, namely every real environment that includes plenty of variables and conditions. That makes every action within it unpredictable.
Just to give you a few examples:
- The double pendulum (two simple pendulums connected) is chaotic.
- Five fidget spinners attracting with a magnet is chaotic.
- Our solar system is chaotic.
- Meteorology systems are chaotic (yes, now you know why we suck at forecasting the weather).
Although unpredictability does not equal to randomness.
Chaos is predictable if we identify every force and variable with perfect accuracy. To make it clear: if we want to predict the weather conditions, we must know every movement that takes place between every single air molecule.
This whole thing has blown my mind.
It has always fascinated me, and I have been reading about it since I was a kid. It was even my main topic of my high school exams.
Likewise, the quantum mechanics; chaos is valid but still contradictory in the meantime.
Chaotic systems surround us. That’s why Chaos Theory entered disparate fields: economics, biology, chemistry, engineering, philosophy, psychology, and so on.
Now let’s take a step back and explain how this whole thing originated.
Spoiler alert!
We will talk about something you maybe have heard: the Butterfly Effect.
(Don’t worry, I won’t bother you with too much science stuff.)
Could a Butterfly Cause a Hurricane?
Everything starts in the 1960s when Edward Lorenz, American meteorologist and professor at MIT, tried to create a basic computer simulation of the Earth’s atmosphere. He wanted to figure out if he could have forecast precisely some aspects of climate change.
He made a system with variables related to the weather and let the computer do his work.
He went to get some coffee. When he returned, he was astonished.
He digited the exact same numbers. The predictions, though, were two completely different scenarios.
How the hell could this happen?
Lorenz initially thought the computer was broken.
Then he realized that the computer worked with numbers rounded to six decimals, whereas he used numbers rounded to three decimals.
Yes, a fraction of a fraction produced this huge difference.
Still surprised, he published his results and organized a conference in 1972 to show his work and findings.
He came up with a puzzling and compelling title:
Does the flap of a butterfly’s wings in Brazil set off a tornado in Texas?
It was called the Butterfly effect.
The image is poetic, although we do not know if it is scientifically likely.
However, the idea behind this curios metaphor is simple: tiny changes can have massive effects in the long-term.
That’s is not hypothetical. That’s the law.
The Butterfly Effect is the essential rule of Chaos Theory.
It explains how chaotic systems are tremendously sensitive to the initial conditions.
However, it is not a mere scientific fact.
Psychologists have used it to explain how a little and meaningless fact may cause a massive transformation in your life.
Life is chaotic.
The butterfly effect is inside our relationships, inside our choices, inside our actions.
I know that the idea could be intimidating.
But I like to use math as a powerful tool to make complicated matters simple to understand.
Indeed, there are a few things I learned when I carried the Chaos Theory and the Butterfly Effect into my life.
Think Small
When we think about changes in our lives, we end up hoping in radical fast switches.
But here’s the thing: nothing happens overnight.
Changes are made by these tiny simple actions we repeat every day.
In my opinion, no one than James Clear, author of the book Atomic Habits, has explained it better:
One way to think about it is just kind of basic math, like if you just look at the numbers. If you were able to improve by 1% each day for an entire year an you would end up 37 times better at the end of the year. If you were to get 1% worse you would widdle yourself almost all the way down to zero. What’s interesting here is that everybody wants a transformation, everybody wants a radical improvement, one rapid success, but we fail to realize that small habits and little choices are transforming us every day already.
You can clearly see the Butterfly Effect in action.
Furthermore, it is even more impressive to discover how small adjustments in our life could even change our biology. I was shocked when I found out this study by Dean Ornish. In his words:
One way to change our genes is to make new ones, as Craig Venter has so elegantly shown. Another is to change our lifestyles. And what we’re learning is how powerful and dynamic these changes can be, that you don’t have to wait very long to see the benefits. When you eat healthier, manage stress, exercise and love more, your brain actually gets more blood flow and more oxygen. But more than that, your brain gets measurably bigger
Next time you hear about life changes, shift from common advice of thinking big or make a drastic move. That could be too stressful.
Instead, consider adding small tweaks to your daily routine. Give value to the small improvements you can implement rather than single heavy actions.
“That small difference made all the difference.”
— Johnny Rich
Build your life upon your habits and your daily life. The change will come.
Everything Is a Domino
We just talked about how the approach based on the Butterfly Effect could work as a potential game-changer for your life.
What about others? Can it affect your relationships as well?
The answer is yes, it hugely does.
We do not live in a bubble on our own.
We are thrown into an interconnected system with its own rules. Every decision or reaction causes an alteration. This alteration causes another alteration, and another again.
We bump into the domino effect.
Let me show you an example:
let’s say you are tired because you had a party the night before and you wake up 10 minutes later than usual.
You are still sleepy and confused (I hope you didn’t get wasted), but suddenly realize that you are late for work.
You hurry up, pick up quickly something to eat, and get dressed in the first clothes on your watch.
Now you get in the car, and you are ready to go. You are running late, so you decide to drive a bit faster.
Although driving faster has not been the wisest choice: you are anxious, you do not drive carefully enough, and you get into an accident.
That is tremendous: you might lose the car, you might be shocked, or someone might die.
Could you imagine? A possible death is caused by an extra 10 minutes of sleep.
This was just one case.
If you want more, here you are:
- Do you know that Gavrilo Princip and Archduke Franz Ferdinand were not supposed to be in the same street?
Indeed the initial attempt failed. The plan was to bomb the target with a grenade, but the wrong car was hit. The Archduke decided to change the route after that, but the driver did not receive the message.
Gavrilo Princip was eating a sandwich in the corner of the street when he realized that the car carrying Franz Ferdinand was precisely in front of him. No need to tell how it ended. - A British soldier involved in World War 1, Henry Tandey, was fighting in France during 1918 when he decided to spare one young German’s life who had entered his line of fire. If not for Henry, that boy would have undoubtedly been dead. His name was Adolf Hitler.
One life saved that doomed millions and millions of people to death.
Single tiny actions might shock the entire history. Stunning, isn’t it?
If you want some extras examples about how the Butterfly Effect influences people’s lives, have a look at this Reddit thread.
Here’s one story by PotatoPixie90210:
“I had attempted suicide after leaving an abusive ex, and was admitted to a psychiatric care unit. There, I met a girl named Lucy whose mother was from Greece. We became good friends, planned to go to Greece together, and after we both left that unit, we even moved in together. We became more like sisters. Well, two months before our trip, I needed to go collect some books that arrived for us at our local bookstore, but I’d had a shitty day at work and was exhausted. Lucy volunteered to go instead, and as she left the store, a car jumped the curb, hitting and killing her instantly. Lucy’s mother encouraged me to still go on the trip to Greece and scatter some of her ashes into the ocean, so I did. I was crying as I scattered her ashes, and a man approached me to ask if I was OK and offered me a coffee in his cafe to help me calm down. Well, come to find out he studied mythology for fun, and so did I! I extended that trip by a month to stay with him, and we have been together for ten years, married for eight, and have twin daughters.”
We are not isolated. Everything we do unavoidably will affect the whole system.
Now, I do not want to transmit the idea that a choice you make or an action you do not take could lead you to be a successful entrepreneur or a terrifying evil man.
Perhaps you will, but the idea is simple: don’t underrate something just because it is small. It will trigger a reaction that will necessarily bring a significant consequence.
Final Thoughts
I am honest with you; the first time I seriously meditate about this theory, I was scared.
I started to think about every single act of my day and the follow-up.
But remember, chaotic systems are unpredictable.
Brooding is useless and potentially harmful.
Knowing that something I do might impact enormously the reality in the long-term charged me with responsibility.
There are no good choices or bad choices, just your choices.
The power of small actions pushed me to try always to do the best I can.
So here’s the first takeaway:
Don’t be shallow. Everything you do has a tremendous impact, so be aware and take control of every step of your day.
Try to create the best consequences you can, keeping in mind that they are unpredictable.
But here is the most important thing:
Never think you don’t matter in this world.
You have an influence; you are significant.
None of us is ignored by this interconnected system. Everyone plays a role.
I do not know the impact this article will have on you, but I am sure it will change you somehow. So, why not take a shot?
“If you could only sense how important you are to the lives of those you meet; how important you can be to the people you may never even dream of. There is something of yourself that you leave at every meeting with another person.” (Fred Rogers)
Never think you are worthless, or something you do is useless. You have your own part in this game.
Be the butterfly.
