The Butterfly Effect

The butterfly effect is the idea that small things can have non-linear impacts on a complex system. This concept is imagined with a butterfly flapping its wings which leads to a tornado half-way across the world.

[Butterfly]

 

Tim Keller, pastor of Redeemer Church in New York City has expressed it on several occasions to his congregation this way (see https://andynaselli.com/watergate):

·       He planted Redeemer Church because he entered a Presbyterian denomination that encouraged church planting.

·       H entered that denomination because in his last semester at seminary he took two courses with a professor who convinced him to adopt Presbyterian theology.

·       He sat under that professor because at the very last minute the professor arrived at the seminary after having bureaucratic visa problems (the professor was British).

·       While that professor was having visa problems, the seminary dean prayed one day about how he didn’t know how they were going to get the professor to arrive, and his prayer partner happened to be a seminary student named Mike Ford.

·       Mike Ford happened to have some clout to get them through the bureaucratic snag because he was the son of Gerald Ford, the sitting President of the US.

·       Gerald Ford was the President of the US because Richard Nixon had resigned.

·       Nixon resigned because a bunch of burglars broke into Watergate and were caught.

·       The burglars were caught because one of them happened to leave a door unlatched to an office they had just bugged, and the night watchman happened to walk by and notice the unlatched door.

Keller half jokes, “if that burglar had latched the door, if the door had been closed just two more inches, we wouldn’t be here tonight.”

I’d like to use this blog to relate a few “butterfly effect” moments in my own life – events which seem quite simple, but which have had enormous effects.

 

Exact Timing

In the fall of 1972, I was looking to change jobs. Because the economy in 1971 had a significant impact on available employment as I was finishing grad school, I had taken one of the few available jobs – working for Uniroyal where I had worked for a couple of summers. In 1972, the job market was opening back up and I was looking for other employment. I had had a couple of job interviews, had received a job offer from Lockheed at their Bridgeport CT office the prior Friday and was planning on calling them on Monday to accept their offer.

On Sunday afternoon, I received a phone call at home from my former boss’s boss, Charlie Smith. He had left Uniroyal a few months before and had taken a new position as the MIS Director at Olin Corporation, Winchester Division, in New Haven. He had an opening that he felt I was well suited for and asked if I had ever considered leaving Uniroyal. I responded that yes, I had considered leaving, and that I was actually planning on accepting an invitation from Lockheed the following day. He then requested that I delay accepting that job offer and come see him in New Haven the following day because he had a great position for me. Since my wife and I wouldn’t even have to move to take a position in New Haven (just drive in a different direction each day), I agreed, took the day off from work and drove down to see him.

I ended up taking that position for the next nearly 3 years. In the process, I acquired the skills that gave me the exact experience to later take a position at Air Products in PA, where I spent the next 30+ years.

If Charlie had not called that Sunday, but had waited one more day to call me on Monday instead, I would have already accepted the position at Lockheed, and my career would have gone in an entirely different direction. What a difference that one day made!

 

The Right Door

It was a nice day in March of 1970. The Spring quarter was just beginning at MSU. A friend, Trent, from the off-campus housing unit where I was living in East Lansing, and I were planning on walking to campus. We came down the stairs from the second floor to the first-floor landing. At that point there were two ways we could have gone. We could have opened the door to the living room, walked across that room, then gone through the double doors that led out to the sidewalk in front of the building. That way was the shortest but would have involved going through three sets of doors. The second way was down another half-flight of stairs, out the back door of the building into the parking area, then around the end of the building to the sidewalk. Slightly longer, but only one set of doors. We chose the latter.

Just outside that door, we noticed a car (which we did not recognize). Sticking out from under the car were the legs of a female. Being the gentlemen we were, we thought that she apparently needed help, so we pulled her from under the car and asked if we could help. It turned out that she was trying to unjam the linkage of the manual transmission. She had borrowed the car from her brother who had converted it from a “three on the tree” to a “four on the floor”. But he had explained to her that it wasn’t aligned properly and would sometimes get stuck in first. He had shown her how to unjam it, but apparently had neglected to explain that you had to push in the clutch while doing so. Trent and I worked together to unjam it for her.

The female who had the car was there for her only quarter on campus because of the program she was in. I was in grad school and was beginning to look at marriage prospects – figuring that there were more eligible females available in the university setting than I might have after graduation. This girl, about my age, was resourceful and that gave her a good standing in my eyes. Learning her name, I began seeing her regularly – eventually getting pinned, then engaged, and marrying her the following year. (We’ve now been married for 52 years!)

If Trent and I had made the decision to go through the living room and out the front door, then this encounter would not have happened. I would probably have seen her in the dining room of the housing unit later that week, but she would have been at a table of girls and it would have been unlikely that I would approach her in that situation.

Deciding to use the back door has had a tremendous impact on my life!

 

Skipping a Grade

I’ve mentioned before (see here) about how when I began first grade at Alcott School that my teacher, Miss Chandler, recognized that I was already quite academically advanced – knowing how to read, being skilled in math, etc. She suggested that instead of having to be bored in first grade that I be admitted to second grade. But the second-grade teacher, Mrs. Bane responded, “Just keep him in first, his classmates will catch up to him soon enough.” (They didn’t.) Being a first-year teacher, Miss Chandler, deferred to Mrs. Bane. But consider what would have happened if Miss Chandler pushed her idea a bit harder, or perhaps involved the principal. How would my life have been different?

·       I’d have a totally different set of friends from my hometown (one-quarter of my fellow high school graduates are still friends of mine on Facebook).

·       I would not have learned about public speaking from being on the inaugural debate team in 7^th grade that was organized by Mr. Carroll during his first year of teaching.

·       I would not have been able to take calculus in high school as that AP class was only approved my senior year – this would have meant that I would not have been able to get credit for it which was partially responsible for my being able to graduate a year earlier than normal.

·       I would not have been able to enter graduate school in the computer science department as I might have graduated the year before that major was made available.

·       I might not have been on campus in 1970, thus I would not have met my wife.

By not following through on her instincts, Miss Chandler’s acquiescence and keeping me in first grade had a tremendous impact on my life.

 

Conclusion

These are just three small incidents in my life. But they are ones that have had very significant outcomes. What are the situations in your life where such small things like a short delay, or the choice of door have been like that flap of a butterfly’s wing?