Compared to a full glass, an empty glass makes a lot of noise when shattered. It's a fragile thing that's devoid both of liquid and stability.
And this emptiness, though fragile, holds immense potential, in that it represents a readiness to be filled with new possibilities.
In practical terms, this manifests when we clear our minds of preconceptions before approaching a problem.
It's not that obvious that this fragility also reminds me that ideas, like glass, can shatter if not handled with care.
For many people(myself included), the noise that comes from a shattered glass is almost as startling, and there's a jarring suddenness, not unlike a thunderclap.
An empty sheet of paper or a blank canvas is open to endless possibilities.
It is left with a creator's imagination to fill with whatever they would want, maybe art, stories, or innovations etc.
I think that's one of the purest forms of agency. Because it allows for unbridled expression and the freedom to shape reality.
An act of creation is also a powerful form of agency. I perceive creativity as a route through which we discover new aspects of ourselves and the world.
As T.S. Eliot puts it, "We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time."
But as experience often reveals, it's quite hard to pick one idea and run with it when there are numerous ideas to pick from.
A "happy" middle ground that I like to take is picking multiple ideas and weaving them together into something that's a bit of innovative. As it is an approach that accounts for many of history's most impactful innovations.
The smartphone merged communications, computing, photography, and navigation.
Urban farming combines agriculture with unused urban spaces to address food security.
Even in art, movements like "mixed media installations" demonstrate how combining established forms creates something genuinely new while honoring their origins.
Knowing though that nothing may be new under the sun, I'm not always content with merely accepting what's been done before without questioning its relevance to present circumstances.
When is it really required to reinvent the wheel?
Suppose in this context, the wheel is a conventional approach, and it has served its purpose, which was quite useful for past challenges but now, isn't sufficient for the complexities of today.
Reinvention becomes necessary when context changes significantly.
An example of this that always comes to mind is how communication tools evolved from sending pigeons to postal mail to email to instant messaging to video conferencing and who knows what will come next when VR becomes mainstream.
Needless to say, the wheel itself has been reinvented countless times: wooden wheels, steel-rimmed wheels, rubber tires, airless tires etc.
Sometimes, sticking to tradition isn't enough. When old methods fail to address new challenges, innovation becomes necessary.
Life is a collection of experiences, and as we grow, we have to adapt and find new ways to move forward.
Given that experience is the best teacher, I think people are better off defaulting on their lived experience as the main reference point for understanding and navigating life.
A manager who has personally experienced burnout will recognize its early signs in team members in ways that someone who's only read about it cannot. And any interventions will likely be more timely and appropriate because they're informed by personal knowledge of how burnout feels and progresses.
Lived experience provides nuanced understanding that formal education alone cannot.
I personally do find it invaluable and recently did encounter a similar situation where my lived experience provided the insight I needed to make the right and informed decision.
But I first had to wade through formal education and theoretical realms before realizing that my direct experiences offered the wisdom I needed for that situation.
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