If you’re not yet familiar with this famous theory that inspired an entire series – it’s the three-body problem. We won’t delve into scientific details now; it’s better if you look into what it is yourself, but I’ll briefly explain the essence.
When we calculate the trajectory of two bodies in space that orbit each other, such as our planet around the Sun, we account for parameters of these two bodies. With high probability, we can predict where one body and the other will be after a certain period of time.
However, if we add a third body that affects the first two with its gravitational field, predicting their future position in space and time becomes virtually impossible. The variables involved in this interaction become immeasurably numerous, and calculating their values so that everything is accurately matched is not possible, at least not now.
There are simplified methods for calculating the state of these bodies, based on simulating various scenarios and approximation – averaging all these variables. This is not an exact calculation, but it allows for determining the location of bodies with sufficient accuracy. But the essence remains unchanged: it’s impossible to precisely determine where one body will be relative to another.
Beyond Just Celestial Bodies
This concept, in my view, extends beyond the study of celestial bodies and science to life itself. When you have only two variables, such as two people or the relationship between them at a certain point in time, you can more or less predict them if you have the values of all these variables.
But as soon as a third person appears, the number of variables that need to be considered when all three interact increases disproportionately more than just plus one or multiplication by the number of people. The same applies to any aspect of life, which is why it seems so unpredictable and unexplored.
Despite the fact that we, as a human species, have gone through so much and achieved a lot, life remains a mystery for each person. What will happen to them is mostly unclear and impossible to predict. Using the principle of approximation or calculating only two bodies doesn’t work because there are many more bodies in each person’s life that influence and contain variables that need to be considered.
The same applies to business. If everything were as simple as calculating the position of two bodies, we would have templates, blueprints, or step-by-step instructions on how to create a business and become rich, taking into account initial conditions, capital, location, and the presence of other things.
But business is also something that doesn’t involve just two bodies, such as a seller and a buyer, but much more. This problem, by the way, is called the n-body problem in science, meaning the number of bodies is not three, but undefined, yet more than two.
Just Take This Guide And You Will Be Rich (You Won’t)
“Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face.” – Mike Tyson, former heavyweight boxing champion
In business, there are also n bodies, and the number of variables that need to be considered when creating a business is so large that it’s impossible to calculate it all in advance using scientific methods or equations. That’s why it’s impossible to create a playbook that you can take, apply, and end up with a ready-made business.
Even if it’s a step-by-step plan, system, or franchise where there’s a book that takes into account many variables and allows minimizing risks, a large number of businesses started even through franchises don’t become profitable and operate at a loss. This confirms the hypothesis that life or business in this case is subject to the n-body problem.
The first conclusion we can draw is that there’s no point in looking for schemes, ready-made templates, advice, blueprints, or playbooks for creating a business because, even if you follow them step by step, some variable unique to your situation or your life will turn this template into a useless piece of text.
Some tactic or strategy won’t work, some advice will be inapplicable considering your position in space and time. It will all end with broken hopes or an indication that this blueprint is a scam.
This often happens despite the fact that it’s a legitimate course on creating a business from someone who has created it, or on any other topic. For example, a course by Ali Abdaal, a multi-million-subscriber YouTuber who knows how to attract an audience, grow a channel, shoot videos, and does this in practice. He’s not a theorist but someone who has gone from zero, knowing all the nuances.
However, if you buy his course, no one guarantees that you’ll become a multi-million-subscriber YouTuber. Practice shows that this is what happens. Some achieve a lot with the help of the course, while others don’t succeed at all. Why? Their specific situation, variables not considered in the course and that cannot be considered, don’t allow for it.
Adjust Anything To You Case
That’s why I always say: don’t try to apply other people’s systems to yourself without adjustment. As soon as you want to apply a system created by someone else, consider that they have a different position in space and time, a different set of variables that may overlap with yours, but you’ll have unique variables.
When you take a system or strategy, be sure to make adjustments considering your variables. Adapt the system to yourself so that it can be reused. Continue doing this constantly, fine-tuning tactics and strategies, adding variables that you won’t consider the first time, even knowing your situation better.
That’s exactly what you need to do with my ANTIghostwriter content creation system, for example, if you decide to use it for your brand. Yes, it’s polished and tested already, but exclusively for my own brand. So what you need to do is refine those parts that don’t match yours. Maybe you will adjust some prompts, maybe you will decrease the number of posts you need to generate every week, or something else. But the essence remains the same: adapt the system to your own needs.
“Nothing endures but change.” – Heraclitus, ancient Greek philosopher
Treat any advice, tactic, strategy, blueprint, or playbook as a beacon that guides you by vector. But the specific path, the trail, leads through a field, and you need to pave the way yourself, considering the backpack with cargo on your shoulders.
A Millimeter Counts
The second conclusion is: how to apply this theory in business? In business, it’s important to engage in predictive analytics, predict the expenses of marketing campaigns, the result of releasing a new product. The same principle that works in modern science applies: approximation, modeling the situation, considering as many parameters as possible.
The more parameters we consider, the more accurate the prediction over a short period of time. Time is one of the variables. The shorter the time period, the easier it is to predict. Any change, even by a millimeter, as in the n-body problem, affects the system.
For example, a shift in the orbit of Venus or Mercury by a millimeter over billions of years leads to the intersection of planetary orbits, collision, a change in the solar system. One millimeter on a cosmic scale is incredible.
In business, such a millimeter could be an employee resignation, stock movement, the emergence of artificial intelligence, a new program, the illness of a manager – anything at all. It’s impossible to predict with accuracy.
“It may happen that small differences in the initial conditions produce very great ones in the final phenomena.” – Henri Poincaré, mathematician & chaos theory pioneer
What to do? A systems approach and analysis, which I actively talk about, helps. Systems analysis involves considering many variables when describing a system. This is what’s needed. It’s impossible to account for all variables; they are dynamic, constantly changing, there are more than can be described, and at each moment, a new system appears.
Plus, they are unknown and cannot be known because there are billions of people on Earth, each of whom can indirectly or directly affect a business. It’s impossible to know everyone. You can only probabilistically assume a scenario.
Systems analysis allows for approximately accounting for a large number of known variables. If something is unknown, systems analysis methods allow for adding variables. I described this in the article on creating a list of objects and functions: The Power of Systems Thinking: How to See the Whole When Others See Parts, which are variables necessary when describing any system, including a business system.
Add More Variables
What we need to do is gather as many variables as possible that can affect a business and model it to account for these variables. How does this work?
When you create a business process diagram and go through the list of variables, you see that some are involved in the process, and some are not. Then you ask yourself: are they really not involved, or have I not considered them? Maybe I need to add a process that directly or indirectly affects the system.
“All models are wrong, but some are useful.” – George E. P. Box, statistician
An approach helps when you first consider the system in isolation and then as part of a subsidiary or parent system. When your system is a subsystem of something larger, new variables appear.
For example, any business operates in a jurisdiction. You can describe all business processes in a franchise book, from registration to purchasing goods, contracts with suppliers, their number. But when a franchise is sold to a foreign market, a variable appears – another country that changes the business landscape: from registration and conditions to the set of products available in that country.
Suppliers that were in another country may not be available. The book will have to be rewritten, considering new inputs. It’s impossible to view the business system as isolated, outside of jurisdiction; it won’t work.
Try to look at the picture not one-sidedly but in context.
I think that someday I’ll create a tool that will allow for clearly and predictably modeling a business, considering many variables, creating a map – a predictive model. You can run simulations: what will happen to the business over time if you change a variable, for example, launch a marketing campaign with such indicators, add a department or product.
This is what predictive data analytics is trying to do, but it’s not accurate enough yet and is only available to major players, as it requires a lot of money and resources.
There’s Still Unknown
The third conclusion: besides the obvious variables in any situation – business, relationships, health, happiness, all domains of life – there are variables that you cannot know and consider. The world is not black and white, not one-sided.
Our brain strives for a narrative where everything is either one way or another. But everything is more complex. We don’t live in a two-dimensional world where you can only move forward-backward, up-down. There are many more variables.
Don’t let this discourage you; let it inspire you. In your life, there are variables that you can find, that you can influence. Even a shift by a millimeter over the years will change life for the better beyond recognition. Look for these variables and be happy.
Let me finish with the beautiful quote from Karl Popper, philosopher of science:
“Optimism is a duty. The future is open. It is not predetermined. No one can predict it, except by chance. We all contribute to determining it by what we do.”
In the next article we will explore several frameworks that can help you to navigate within life and business environment and untangle a bit the Three-Body Problem.