December 2009 – Mobiusman

Mindset Crumple Zones

by David

Crumple zones help

Crumple zones work by managing crash energy, absorbing it within the outer sections of the vehicle, rather than being directly transmitted to the occupants, while also preventing intrusion into or deformation of the passenger cabin. This better protects car occupants against injury.

-From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I love the idea of crumple zones. They have saved a lot of lives in car accidents since they were introduced by Mercedes-Benz in the 1950’s.

But I have a new use of the term. What if a type of crumple zone was available for the human thinking so that when some negative experience happens in their lives people can feel less injury?

A binary usually refers to a system comprised of two parts. Like computer code is comprised of just two numbers 1 and 0. I’m borrowing on this idea a lot lately because, as a metaphor, it helps to illustrate this dynamic of what it is to be human and how success and failure defines us.

This whole duality in motivation thing is discussed rather succinctly in a wonderful TED talk by author Daniel Pink.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrkrvAUbU9Y[/youtube]

In my work with H.E.R.O. when I say that a human being is a binary I’m referring to the fact that these two parts of you, which reside in one body, are often in conflict. In religion the body is seen a egoistic and the soul as realistic. This idea goes back to the ancient Chinese who referred to this duality in humans as the “Yin” and the “Yang” many centuries ago.