Steven Johnson, author of Where Good Ideas Come From, spotlights an interesting phrase by scientist Stuart Kauffman who suggests if we are feeling stuck in some area of our life we choose to pay attention to what he calls the “adjacent possible.”
What is the adjacent possible? As Johnson describes, “It’s the… future hovering on the edges of the present state of things, a map of all the ways in which the present can reinvent itself.”
What’s interesting, notes Johnson, is once we pay attention, “its boundaries grow as you explore those boundaries… Think of [the adjacent possible] as a house that magically expands with each door you open. You begin in a room with four doors, each leading to a new room you haven’t visited yet. Those four rooms are the adjacent possible. Once you open one of those doors and stroll into that room, three new doors appear. You keep opening new doors and eventually you’ll have built a palace.”
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