Agility

From a very young age I have identified with the value of agility, both physical and mental. I wanted to be Tarzan, Zagor - men of the forest. The Puma (not the Eel)

Not strong (I wasn’t) but rather svelte and efficient as a practitioner of Judo (I was) or Jujitsu

Re-reading Calvino’s American Lessons, I realise that agility is connected to both his concept of lightness and that of Rapidity

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Mental agility, i.e. the ability to range between different and seemingly distant concepts, but which it is possible to connect using reason and Imagination

Even between different languages and cultures. Distinct areas of knowledge, the versatility of the polymath who leaps ‘di palo in frasca’ (from pole to branch, like Tarzan) with confidence and self-mastery. Ignoring barriers and arbitrary boundaries, guided only by curiosity and the joy of exploration.

The concept of Agility acquires new meaning in the age of software and the Internet → Agile. Fundamental concept of Design Thinking. Learn, Test, Iterate.

It is almost a philosophy, a general approach to life. Don’t think of things as static, complete: an idea, a product, a project remains undercover while in the development stage until it is complete. Rather bring it into the world ‘launch before you are ready’. It is a liberating idea, which recognises the circularity of evolution. Of course it is risky, but it is better to fail early and often, when the investment (in time, resources) is limited.

Arguably human babies are born ‘before they are ready’. They cannot survive on their own. As a species we had to learn the hard way the strategies to keep them (us) alive. As a parent, I would not consider the investment required for a new born ‘limited’ but from an evolutionary perspective it is more so than for an adult.

It is, after all, the reason why I put these ideas out there while I think and work on them, instead of waiting for them to be perfectly formed, combed, presented in a publishing product. → Work with the garage door open.