Member-only story
The Illusion of Control
How to survive and thrive in an unpredictable world
We live in a rock traveling through space at 300 km/s. We weren’t here 200.000 years ago and we won’t be here in a few hundred years. Anything could happen at any moment and the entire planet could collapse.
And yet, we pretend we are in control.
I’m not saying this to be nihilistic, pessimistic or a doomsayer. I’m saying it because I want you to realize that control is an illusion.
The illusion of control
When my son was two, we got on the train that travels between terminals at Madrid airport — one of those driverless trains. I played a practical joke on him. I told him the train will stop when he presses a certain imaginary button. It just has to be pressed at the right time.
I told him ‘now’, he went ahead and pressed the button, and the train stopped. He was in control.
Apart from bad parenting, what can we learn from this story? How often do we think we are in control when we are not? And more importantly, how can we thrive in a world where we are at the mercy of the elements?
Welcome to reality
According to physics, reality operates at a quantum level. In quantum mechanics, electrons can be in two places at once and…
