Seems like everyone who fancies themselves an artist or performer uses—or overuses—the term “pushing the envelope” when describing their craft. However, if we journey back to the origins of the term we can regain the value of its meaning.
It is called Eternalism. It’s the philosophy adopted from the quantum theory that the past, present, and future all exist at the same time. In other words, the past, present, and future are not linear. One does not take place right after the other, rather they all exist equally.
Like many others, the word trend has evolved and changed in meaning over time. Some 400 years ago trend meant “to run or bend in a certain direction” and pertained to natural occurrences like rivers, coastlines and mountain ranges.
It has been said that one of the greatest attributes of humankind is the want and need to bring order to and better understand the universe and our place in it. To do this, we have qualified, quantified, and categorized just about everything around us and analyzed and ranked the relationships among just about all things.
Garbage in, garbage out. It’s a term born in the early days of the computer and computer programming. The phrase, and its popular acronym, GIGO, are said to have been taken from the business strategies of LIFO and FIFO—last in, first out and first in, first out—as it pertains to inventory management.
“With great power comes great responsibility.” I’m guessing 4 out of 5 people would attribute this quote to Ben Parker, uncle of Peter Parker, from the Spider-Man movies and comic books.
A revolution has occurred. Those with a view of major developed economies over the last roughly twenty years say it happened “quietly,” as the businesses of these economies began investing more in intangible assets—such as design, branding, research and development, and software—than in tangible assets, like machinery, buildings, and computers.
Those familiar with the animated comedy The Simpsons may recall that Homer has a once long-lost brother named Herb. While making a valiant effort to pull himself from the gutter, Herb invents a device that will translate a baby’s cries into intelligible language that will tell parents exactly what the baby wants or needs.
Whether in our work or personal lives, whether for an individual endeavor or to benefit an entire organization or whether collectively or subconsciously, we’ve all asked the question: What is the best approach to getting the best result?
