The Improbability of The Impossible

How many strands of thread does it take to keep us from being naked everyday? A whole lot for sure! How do you somehow collect all those strands and weave them into a single united strands that we wear everyday? Easy, a needle, strands with enough length and a significant amount of time and energy should suffice. So what’s the substance connecting all the dots? Technology.

Dissecting and subordinating the impossible usually starts with HOW. How did you do it? How do we sew the strands to finally forms a piece of clothing? Technology in this virtual age is all about data. They are the fundamental element that shapes a computer as we know it today. Data on its own is useless, no matter if it is 1 Byte or 1 Terabytes, it does not hold any value unless value is added to them.

Instead of starting with how, let’s start with WHAT. In the stone age, a piece of clothing we wear everyday might seem like Star Trek for the humans of that era. It is unthinkable because they don’t know there is clothing, yet. The opening paragraph has described the whats. It seems today we can manufacture a needle and strands quite easily, albeit I’m sure with a hefty amount of knowledge already there. Long story short, the very definition is here.

Knowledge plays a big part in dictating what you CAN or can’t do. So now the question is What is The Impossible? Every one of us are slaves to our own knowledge about our own understanding of how things work. Not limited only in a technical sense but more general even life’s very own existence. How well do you know your lives? How far will you go the distance between impossible and Possible. As stated before, technology is knowledge while knowledge is power (material) so technology equals power. The power that comes from own existence, the thirst for understanding and always wanting to learn. Most importantly, the power to say NO when needed and saying YES to admit own mistakes.

Individuals often seek others to empower themselves, this is not a very healthy way of expressing one’s self. More often than not, consumed by the myriad of foreign knowledge not yet proven by ourselves. Rejecting, resisting or even denying seems to be the first acceptable solution. Questioning if it is right for ourselves. Unit testing the knowledge with past experiences. This leads to approval from someone more experienced. Approval also sometimes means acknowledgement by our peers.

The learning process of it all will sometime redefine our understanding about how things work and in extreme ways make us rethink and conclude a whole different set of knowledge. Knowledge that will add value to a set of data, transforming it into one of those moments when you just stop for a while and smile at it. To put it in a more familiar term, INSPIRATION. Undefined (null) moments when you found a solution for a problem you’ve been having or someone else’s. The very essence of what a startup is.

So what is the improbability of the impossible? I say greater than zero, it will take time and be possible when it’s due. Between time and energy, I believe energy will have a significant impact in cutting down the amount of time needed. Energy according to Einstein is mass times the square of the speed of light, I don’t think so, here’s my equation:

Energy = Inspiration ^ Passion

Impossible < I < Possible

I = (int (Boolean TRUE)) / (Time + Energy) * Experience
I = 1 / (Time + Inspiration ^ Passion) * Experience

I = Experience / (Time + Inspiration ^ Passion)

The equation conclusion:

• The more the experience doesn’t necessarily mean it’s more possible
• With more Time and or Energy, the more possible the impossible

There are other conclusions to be made and I welcome it all in the comments. Have a great POSSIBLE day!

This blog post is dedicated to my friend Rama Mamuaya who is getting married this month. Through his examples and undying passion for technology and startups, Founders alike have been connected in so many ways. Congratulations bro! Have a great POSSIBLE days ahead of you and Puspa ;)