Responsive to Change

It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.
Charles Darwin

It is perhaps part of our mental expectation (or hope) that things will not change that leads us to desire to be very strong. We often fear change, for that will mean that we will have to leave that place with which we are most familiar, and most recognized in. And if we are going to be in the same place, dealing with the same problems, all our life, then it makes sense that we should become strong and skilled at solving those particular problems.

But in real life things are always changing. That is the whole reason God created sexual reproduction and evolution. Glaciers melt, mountains rise, droughts and floods occur, grassland becomes desert. And animals have to adapt or die. It is no use being a very good swimmer if you can't find a lake to swim in any more. And being intelligent won't help you much if you find yourself alone in a desert. But just as true as this is for animals, it is also true for people too.

Human life is much more complex than that of animals and so changes even faster. Only a few generations ago people thought that computers wouldn't amount to much, now we can't seem to live without them. And it is of course those visionary people who saw the future of computers, who survived and prospered. Change is a constant. Within even one person's lifetime, enormous social and technical/ physical changes occur. It does no good for us to be the best at one set of problems when another is on the horizon. If we want to survive, we must not work on being the strongest or most intelligent but instead work on being the most adaptable to whatever changes come along. Being adaptable is what will save us in the end.