Nature and Chess

"The Nobel laureate Richard Feynman once observed that trying to understand nature through science is like trying to figure out the rules of chess as you watch a game being played - but you can only see two squares at a time."

I read this in Dr. David Suzuki's book The Sacred Balance. I love it when people come up with creative ideas to describe concepts that are difficult to understand. As speakers and trainers it is essential that we find ways for people to grasp ideas in a way that is relevant to them.

So using Richard Feynman's quote what else could you use in the place of the words NATURE THROUGH SCIENCE The part about the chess game is wonderful and the idea that you can only see two squares at a time is really descriptive.

Here are some words I could substitute in: finances through the stock market, life through relationships. Well, you get the idea.

Further in the book Dr. Suzuki writes:

"The total knowledge base currently acculuated by scientists is still so limited that it can rarely be prescriptive; it is almost imposible to generate scientifically based policies or solutions for managing our surroundings when we know so little. It is as if we are standing in a cave holding a candle; the flame barely penetrates the darkness, and we have no idea where the cave walls are, let alone how many more caves there are beyond. Standing in the dark, cut off from time and place, and from the rest of the universe, we struggle to understand what we are doing here alone"

Creating idea pictures in people's minds makes the idea memorable and relevant.