It is strange how sometimes, after first noticing something you hadn’t noticed before, it seems to pop up all over the place. It has been dubbed the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon, and it’s not so much a case of encountering something new, but encountering something that is new to you.
Lately a recurring theme in my life has been discovering inspirational people with particularly unique and interesting ways of looking at the world. One of those people is Richard Feynman, a 20th century American theoretical physicist who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1965. I wouldn’t normally think of theoretical physicists as the most engaging people, but I’ve watched a bunch of videos on Youtube where he talks about not only the intricacies of the physical world, but also more esoteric subjects such as the differences between knowing and understanding. If more people were exposed to such ideas at an early age, I have no doubt there would be more scientists in the world.
Another source of inspiration I found (again thanks to Youtube) is Henry Rollins, who is about as different from Richard Feynman as it is possible for a person to be. He was the lead singer in the hardcore punk band Black Flag in the 1980s, whose relentless energy has seen him turn his hand to acting, writing, starting his own publishing company, hosting radio shows, motivational speaking and activism.
Whereas Feynman’s inspiration came from observing, wondering about the nature of something and then seeking to understand and explain it, Rollins’ message is all about the power of the individual over the collective (but not at the expense of the collective) and he gains wisdom and energy from travelling and experiencing as many different things as possible. Albert Einstein had yet another approach, as he was said to have entered into a deep meditative state to find the inspiration for his most famous theories.
There is no right or wrong way of gaining inspiration, then, and no telling from where or whom it will come. For example, I was further inspired recently by Michael Jackson. No, not that one, ‘the other’ Michael Jackson – that’s how he refers to himself, his website is even theothermichaeljackson.com.
Jackson was the motivational speaker at an AREI (Association of Representatives for the Electronics Industry) breakfast held on a chilly winter’s morning at the Kyalami Country Club. His speech, entitled ‘Business as unusual’, included some really interesting insights into the way companies operate, and the processes and structures we take for granted without wondering if there’s a better way. He emphasised the human factor over technology, and enthused that, as a nascent country, South African businesses are in an ideal position to adopt not innovative but differentiated approaches.
The thing that really stuck with me was Jackson’s reference to an experiment in which a group of people were told to brush their teeth with the wrong hand. The first consequence was that they had cleaner teeth at the end of the experiment than the control group who didn’t change hands, as a result of them paying closer attention to what they were doing rather than repeating rote habit. The second and more interesting observation was that there was a profound change in their neural pathways.
So, I started brushing my teeth with my left hand, I started putting on my right shoe first instead of my left, and various other little changes. Although he didn’t refer to it as such himself, since I’m right-handed I’ve come to think of this as Jackson’s left hand rule. After two weeks I can’t say my teeth are quantifiably cleaner, but just by doing things differently to the norm I have started to think slightly more open-mindedly about how I approach certain aspects of my personal and work lives, and even if it doesn’t revolutionise my life, a change can sometimes be as good as a holiday.
Brett van den Bosch
Editor
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