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Imagine that you could not
read, and were given the task of
assembling the words SMILING OWNER from a set of 68
characters made of the alphabet in upper and lower case, a blank,
and some punctuation marks
How many
attempts would you have to make to get the correct solution?
There are 13
characters in SMILING OWNER including the blank.
So the chances
of getting the first character is 1 in 68 (1/68), the chances of
getting the second character is 1/68, so to get the first two
together would be 1/68 multiplied by 1/68.
To get all 13
characters right, it would take 1/68 multiplied by itself 13
times.
This give
odds of 1 in
664,684,980,187,672,000,000,000
fresh attempts
to get it right. This would take you an extremely long time, if
ever to succeed.
Each time we
make a fresh start. It just does not work. The odds of success are
extremely remote.
Now
imagine, we worked on a different basis…we
mimic the way nature works or reproduces.
We make a
population of say 1024 possible answers, and we choose one and
compare with the SMILING OWNER target, and give it a score
of how well it “fits”.
We then breed it at random with the other 1024
solutions in our population. This is done by randomly splitting
the best fitting solution in two and joining it with another split
solution. This is done repeatedly testing the fit of new
generation against the target.
We drop the least successful fit from the
population and keep the best fit each time.
Very occasionally we throw in a random error or
mutation as happens in nature.
Astonishingly, after breeding only 60 odd
generations and about 17000 tries of these small changes, the word
SMILING OWNER emerges as the best fit, instead of the
664,684,980,187,672,000,000,000 above.
This clearly demonstrates that
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Small gradual cumulative steps in nature lead
to higher success rates in creating successful complex
designs. |
It is the slow, methodical, cumulative effect
of all these small changes, each one making a better fit to the
environment, that makes success.
Evolution occurs because over many successive
generations, over millions of years, there are small random
differences in gene structures caused by rare errors in copying or
reproduction.
Note, the above smiling owner example is
unrealistic. In nature there is no target, but the above simple
example illustrates the power of small cumulative steps.
Build your business in slow, systematic,
cumulative small steps.
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