Daily Tao – Messy: The Power of Disorder to Transform Our Lives – 1
In 2014, some of the workers on London’s Underground system went on strike for two days. The strike closed 171 of the system’s 270 stations, leaving commuters scrambling to find alternative routes using buses, aboveground trains, or the stations that remained open. Many commuters in London use electronic fare cards that are valid on all forms of public transport, and after the strike, three economists examined data generated by those cards. The researchers were able to see that most people used a different route to get to work on the strike days, no doubt with some annoyance. But what was surprising is that when the strike was over, not everybody returned to their habitual commuting route. One in twenty of the commuters who had switched then stayed with the route that they had used during the strike; presumably, they had discovered that it was faster or cheaper or preferable in some other way to their old routine. We tend to think that commuters have their route to work honed to perfection; evidently not. A substantial minority promptly found an improvement to the journey they had been making for years. All they needed was an unexpected shock to force them to seek out something better.
Most of us tend to get into our routine, keeping to the same habits or course of action to deal with issues over time. Our mind forms this particular pattern, and we think that this is the best way to do things. Even as things change, it might take too much effort to constantly find new things to do. Like in this book, sometimes some form of disorder can benefit us. By throwing us off routine, we get to try things out in a different way that we might not have conceived of, which allows us to discover new and possibly better ways to do things.
Good note to always keep open minded to new things!
