Chapter Content
Okay, so, um, you know, I was reading this, uh, really interesting stuff about power laws. It's kind of wild, right?
So, this guy, Sir Roger Penrose, who's, like, a super smart mathematician, he won a Nobel Prize, and he talks about this "crazy theory." Basically, he thinks that before our Big Bang, there was another universe. And, like, that universe came from *another* big bang. It's universes all the way down, you know? An infinite chain. Pretty mind-blowing stuff.
And it got me thinking. There are cultures, like the Ju’/hoansi in Botswana, that have this similar idea about time being cyclical. It's not just like a straight line from the past to the future. It's more like a rhythm, you know, with things repeating. Like the seasons, or the way the sun and moon move. It's all about these predictable cycles.
And, the really cool thing is, in that kind of time, nature sets the pace. You can't just, like, speed things up with machines or whatever. You're working *with* the cycles, not against them. And how you work, well, that actually changes how you *feel* time. Some periods feel super fast, others drag on forever. It's not this steady, constant thing.
There was even, like, a study where they messed with people's perception of time. They had clocks running faster or slower than normal, and it actually changed how fast their wounds healed! Like, if they thought time was moving faster, they healed *faster*. Isn't that insane?
And it's not just some weird, modern thing, either. Anthropologists have looked at hunter-gatherer communities and found this pattern of, like, intense work followed by long periods of rest. They'd work really hard for a bit, and then just chill for days. It was all about regaining their energy and health.
Like, there was this one group, the Yámana, and people noticed that they couldn't really do, like, continuous, hard labor every day. They'd have bursts of energy, then they'd just want to, like, lie around and do nothing.
So, it's kind of like a power law, right? When the work is super hard, the time you spend doing it is short. Most of the time, you're doing easier stuff, or just resting. It's this rhythm of work and rest.
They even did a study with the Hadza people in Tanzania. They tracked their movements when they were out foraging, and they found that they followed this thing called a Lévy walk, which is basically a power law. They walked short distances most of the time, and only went on long treks when they really had to. And it wasn't because of the environment or anything, they just *chose* to do it that way.
It's like, maybe this is an instinct we all have. This way of working in bursts. It might have helped our ancestors survive, because it's the most efficient way to find food in the wild. Look for local sources first, and only go far afield if you really have to.
But then, you know, the agricultural revolution and the industrial revolution kind of messed that up. They needed constant, uniform work. So assembly lines, for example, just amplified that trend.
But even now, it seems like that instinct is still there. Like, searching for a memory in your brain follows a similar pattern. And baby rats! They start out flipping randomly between sleep and awake, but then they settle into a power law pattern, where they're awake for short periods most of the time, and longer periods less often. Think of infant nap schedules – right?
Even adults, when they're left to their own devices, tend to move and rest in this kind of pattern. So, like, maybe these power laws are super important. Maybe they're not just something we see in nature, but they're actually built into how our brains work.
And that made me think, could we actually use this to work *better*? To get more out of our brains?
So, some researchers looked at how Darwin, Freud, and Einstein answered their letters. Back then, letters were a big deal, a form of knowledge work. Scientists would use letters to debate ideas and even do peer review. The researchers discovered that instead of answering letters one after the other, at a constant pace, Darwin, Freud, and Einstein worked in rhythmic bursts. It was like a power law, again!
And, yeah, power laws are *everywhere*! In the weather, in ocean waves, in the craters on the moon, earthquakes. It's like the world is full of them. And maybe that's why they're also in our brains and our behavior.
But, you know, technology has kind of changed things. We use technology to make processes faster. We want everything to happen at a constant pace. And that's created a new kind of time: technological time. It's linear and regular, and it forces us to, you know, keep up.
But what happens when you step outside that world? I traveled to Sardinia and saw the Blue Zones – where people live exceptionally long lives. People there work hard, but they also take lots of breaks. They don't have a ton of technology, so they're more connected to natural time. You chase a goat up a hill, and the next thing you’re lazily watching over your herd. It's all these bursts of intense work followed by rest.
And they're healthier and more mentally fit than other people in Italy. So maybe there's something to this power law way of living. This natural way of being.
Of course, working in bursts isn't enough on its own, right? You also need to be *efficient*. Like, if you want to be a great knowledge worker, you need every interval of hard work to be super high quality.
Think about Eliud Kipchoge, the marathon runner who broke the two-hour barrier. He had this car with a laser beam guiding him, keeping him at the perfect pace. It was like a pacemaker, telling him exactly how fast to run to be most efficient.
So, the real question is, how do you combine this power law pattern of work and rest with that kind of efficiency? How do you have those bursts of brilliance *and* make sure they're as productive as possible? How do you combine rhythm and that super-efficient pace? That’s the mystery we have to unlock.