Have you ever heard of Buridan’s Donkey?
This was developed by a French philosopher, who actually came up with the idea of “thought experiment.”
Think of this as your intellectual espresso shot for the day
The butterfly of the “butterfly effect” (you’ll get this by the end)
There’s a thought experiment where a donkey is standing exactly halfway between a pile of food and a
bucket of water.
Equally hungry. Equally thirsty.
No reason to go one way over the other.
So he stands there.
And dies.
Not because he’s weak. Not because he’s broken.
He’s glitching in his programming.
Two impulses in conflict. STUCK
Because nothing new entered his world to tip the scale.
Now picture a second donkey.
Same setup. Same paralysis.
Stuck in his programming – glitching back and forth between this thing and that thing
Unable to will himself in either direction.
Then a butterfly drifts past his nose.
Doesn’t do much. Just grazes by.
But it jolts him ever so slightly to the left.
And he walks to the water.
And NOW he can hydrate and go get food after.
That butterfly saved his life
That butterfly is what we know as the butterfly effect. 🦋
A tiny injection of randomness.
An outside stimulus.
Chaos from somewhere unexpected.
It didn’t fix his programming.
It didn’t require willpower.
It just got him into movement.
That’s what being stuck actually looks like.
Glitching and looping ♾️
Just no new information entering the system.
The fix isn’t grinding harder inside the same loop.
It’s the butterfly.
This is why I have books on my shelf from different domains
This is why I surround myself with people who helped me cross pollinate ideas
This is why every week I host events and attend events with people from all walks of life
A conversation.
A reframe.
An idea you’ve never had before.
Something genuinely new that enters your world and jolts you ever so slightly off center.
That’s all it takes to get into motion.
The donkey doesn’t need more discipline.
He needs a butterfly.
So do you.
#chaostheory #thoughtexperiment
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Mitch Snyder on Medium: https://medium.com/@mitchsnyder01/butterfly-effect-chaos-and-getting-unstuck-thought-experiment-fee2c6bf24cf
Mitch Snyder’s Personal Blog: https://mitchsjourneytolife.blogspot.com/
Mitch Snyder 