Evolution doesn't follow a script
Originally written in Chinese. Translated with AI, reviewed by Gary. Read the Chinese original →
We are all very used to planning.
Career plans, life plans, yearly goals, quarterly goals. Prepare and you succeed. These matter, of course. Without plans a person drifts, without rhythm a company falls apart.
But planning isn't the whole of life.
If every one of our days is arranged in advance and we simply follow a fixed script, life looks stable, but it may slowly lose the possibility of evolving.
Evolution was never fully designed in the first place.
At the level of genes, many changes start out random. Some survive not necessarily because they are the strongest, but because of environment, timing and chance. This is called genetic drift. Drift, as in drifting.
It reminds us that life doesn't know from the start what it will become. Many new possibilities grow slowly out of randomness, accidents and trial and error.
From a wider view, evolution isn't a straight line either.
It doesn't go from A to B today, B to C tomorrow, and finally arrive at a perfect end point.
Evolution is more like a tree, branching and branching again.
Some branches survive, some disappear. Some traits that once looked useless suddenly become important in a new environment. Some abilities that were once strong become a burden once the environment changes.
What makes life truly remarkable isn't that it knows from the start what it will become, but that it leaves room to change.
Life is the same.
Of course we need plans, but we also need a little randomness.
Sometimes what changes a person isn't a goal on their plan, but a small shop they wandered into, a book they wouldn't normally read, a person they wouldn't normally talk to at length, or a new interest that looks useless.
If someone only ever does what is familiar, only ever meets the same people, only ever reads the same kind of content and only ever walks the same road, their life becomes more and more controllable, and their world becomes smaller and smaller.
Randomness leaves an exit for life.
It gives us the chance to meet new information, new relationships, new experiences and a new self.
These small things seem random at first, even like taking a detour.
But many new versions of ourselves grow out of exactly these detours.
A good life isn't one where every day is scheduled with no gaps. It's one with a clear direction, and room left in the path.
A main storyline, with room for side stories to happen.
Because evolution doesn't follow a script.
Neither does life.