Fitness
In my corner of the world, people are abuzz and anxious about our local rankings - in economic and other metrics. We justify our self-criticism on the basis of not being in the top 10 in everything. And I’m not sure low self-esteem is a useful condition for passion and growth.
In the Accidental Conversations chapter on Fitness, I explore how nature seeks what works. In the ecological sciences, fitness is a species’ capacity to adapt to changing conditions - not it’s ability to develop characteristics superior to other species. Larger birds for example, are not necessarily more resistant to extinction, or more apt to be sustainable.
The lesson: we need to stop assuming that characteristic comparisons have anything to do with creating what works. We need to start measuring our capacity for sustainability in terms of our being adaptable to emerging niche conditions - which may or may not have anything to do with how anyone else is being in other geographies.
