Hacks

Story of two Hacks…

Story 1

350 million years ago a tiny insect was sitting high up on the trunk of a Devonian tree, holding on to his dear life.

Hungry predators surrounded it. It had zero chances of survival.

It took a leap of faith and jumped from the tree trunk, almost certain in its gut that this going to be a fatal jump.

But… it survived… though barely. It got wounds all over the body.

How did it survive?

Here is what happened: An extended lobe on this insect’s back enabled it to glide while it jumped. This provided for a softer landing.

It was a Hack.

But… this was also the beginning of a Tiny step towards the evolution of wings in insects. The extended paranotal lobes enabled insects to glide, steer and finally flap and fly.

A small overgrowth on the insect’s back gave it a survival edge in the ecosystem. That overgrowth ultimately got evolved into sophisticated wings.

Isn’t this serendipity of discovering flight beautiful?

Story 2

A few years ago, I started using a productivity app – Forest.

The idea of the app is simple – if you want to stay focused for say 30 mins, then open the app and plant a seed in a virtual forest. In 30 mins the seed will grow into a full-grown tree.

If you switch to any other app in those 30 mins or decide to give up (by clicking a button) then the growing tree dies 🙁 . The more successful focused sessions you do the bigger your forest gets!

I could see myself spending a significantly higher number of focused hours every day using Forest.

It was working. Until.. it didn’t.

I started disliking the fact of needing a gamification app to increase productivity. There was a ‘feeling silly’ about this entire stuff.

It felt like a Hack.

“I should be able to meditate my way into staying focused and shouldn’t be needing a gamification app!” was the inner dialogue.

I ditched the app for a brief period.

Even the act of ditching it made me uncomfortable. Forest was helping me! Earlier I was feeling “impure” but now I was feeling “stupid”. It was conflicting.

There was a ‘bug’ in me.

Until there was a moment of insight…

While taking a walk one evening I got reminded of a recent article about evolution of wings in insects.

And then I was able to connect my *bug* with evolution.

What would have happened to that insect if it would not have embraced its extended paranotal lobes and hacked its way around?

Not only it would have died but it would have also killed the first Tiny step towards flight.

Finally, I was able to get rid of the *bug*. I was back to building my forest.

When you don’t know what to do, have the courage to do what you can. Doesn’t matter if it looks like a Hack.*

This is how nature works.

And we are a Tiny part of that.

Notes

* Small but important caveat – run the Hack by your core values.