Discovering your “Adjacent Possible”

There’s a lot to be grieving right now with the recent COVID-19 outbreak.

There’s a collective loss of normalcy, and for many of us, we’ve lost a sense of connection, routine, and certainty about the future. Some of us have already suffered pay-cuts, lost jobs, our livelihood and even loved ones. And most, if not all of us, have a lingering sense that more loss is still to come.

In the current circumstance, it’s easy to feel deprived and helpless. Shelter-at-home, routine tasks, unappreciative bosses/family members, and overcrowded schedules zap the thrill out of the daily grind.

This state of affairs, however real it might seem, is transient. Opportunities for growth are everywhere — if you know where to look, that is. If you raise your gaze, there’s a special place a bit further adjacent. It’s a place where growth and evolution can always be found, no matter the circumstance.

That place is the Adjacent Possible.

The idea of adjacent possible started with evolutionary biologist Stuart Kauffman, who used it to explain how such powerful biological innovations as sight and flight came into being.

Not to long ago, Steven Johnson, in Where Good Ideas Come From, showed that it’s also applicable to science, culture, and technology.

The core of the idea:

People arrive at the best new ideas when they combine prior (adjacent) ideas in new ways.

“The adjacent possible is a kind of shadow future, hovering on the edges of the present state of things, a map of all the ways in which the present can reinvent itself…[the adjacent possible] captures both the limits and the creative potential of change and innovation.” — Steven Johnson

Each time you read / create something new or perhaps find yourself in a circumstance (good or bad), you are brushing the adjacent possible. It opens new doors and enables you to discover something innovative. Upon opening this door, you’ve unlocked a new room. This room, in turn, has even more doors to be unlocked. Each innovation or improvement unlocks even more improvements and innovations. The adjacent possible is what’s about a door away from being invented.

Have in mind that your invention and innovation is actually a key for unlocking somebody else’s adjacent possible (network effect). This way, you’ve streamlined your future and the future of people around you by eliminating countless possibilities for solving the problem differently.

Netflix discovering it’s Adjacent Possible

As an example of perfect timing into the adjacent possible, consider Netflix’s inception and pivot into streaming

• Marc Randolph and Reed Hasting were in a big dilemma of what kind of business they wanted to start. Randolph primarily had focussed on starting a company that sells something online.
• The incident occurred with Hasting when he was forced to pay $40 in overdue fines after returning VHS tape of Apollo 13 past its due date. This gave a birth to Netflix as a DVD rental company in the year 1997 based in Scotts Valley, California.
• This was the time when customers were still used to renting Blockbuster’s VHS tapes, and not many people owned DVD players because they were expensive.
• This was the also the time when Toshiba, HP, and Sony launch DVD players.
• In 1998, Netflix officially opened its DVD rental business this year with 30 employees.
• To create a market, they partnered with various DVD player vendors and offered free DVD rentals to new DVD player buyers.
• In the early 2000s, Netflix did effective modifications in monetizing process — “unlimited rentals for a flat fee with no due dates, no shipping fees, and handling fees”.
• In late 2006/early 2007, Hasting opened another door. With significant improvements in Computer Graphics, CPU, Memory paired with widespread use of high speed internet subscriptions, he launched an online media streaming service.
• In 2010, Netflix had signed deals with the entertainment industry giants, such as Disney, Lionsgate, MGM, Paramount, and Sony. Netflix became extremely popular in North America and grabbed a 20% share of peak-hour traffic.
• In 2019, Netflix has made its mark with original content. Shows such as Stranger Things, Black Mirror, and Orange is the New Black, alongside films such as Roma and Bird Box, are clear indicators that Netflix is no longer a new kid on the block when it comes to producing hit shows.
• With a subscriber base of approximately over 160MM, is Netflix still discovering its adjacent possible?

Blockbuster CEO John Antioco was, in fact, a very competent executive — many considered him a retail genius — with a long history of success. Yet for all his operational acumen, he failed to brush the adjacent possible.

Transcending your own boundaries to discover the adjacent possible

Sometimes the boundary is clearly marked, but other times it’s hidden from view. Either way, it can always be accessed, even in the dullest of circumstances.

The adjacent possible is whatever lies just beyond the limits of your current abilities. Everything within the boundary is known, expected, and secure. Everything beyond it is new, unknown, and uncertain.

Every stage of transcendence leads to the dance between the known and unknown

Upon transcending, the unknown becomes known. This boundary is not fixed and static. Instead, it’s expandable.

The edge of the boundary is a combination of the known and the unknown. It’s stability and uncertainty, security and panic, all at once. It’s the feeling of desire and fear at the same time. It’s where “I want to leap…” meets the “…but maybe not…”.

Framing problems as the ‘adjacent possible’ has been a liberating idea to me. In the work I do, I try to find the doors that lead to the biggest possible expansion of the possible.

Unlocking your adjacent possible

Any thought process is a new congregation of neurons in your brain. It is a synaptic sequence which had never happened before. In order to stimulate this new congregation, you have to find yourself in a planned or unforeseen environment. In essence, that neuron congregation is a network. Allowing the mind to move from one context to another will force you to approach the same problem from different angles. Here are a couple of ideas for unlocking the adjacent possible:

• Read books from completely unrelated domains
• Socialize and connect with people outside your normal circle
• Capture your ideas and write it down somewhere — I recently discovered Roam, which brands itself as “a note taking tool for networked thought.”.
• Combine Ideas — Often, a new idea is a combination of two separate ideas from a seemingly unrelated domain. This could illuminate the way towards discovering your untapped potential.