The Butterfly Effect – “ Small changes Big consequences.”

By – Praharsh Mishra

Ever wondered that the quote “ Small things makes Big differences” which we heard during our school assemblies or read from someone’s WhatsApp or Facebook status will have a link from an effect. And that effect is the Butterfly Effect. The Butterfly Effect says that a small change in a small state during the initial conditions of a complex system ( human economy, ant colonies, social structures, living things, climate etc.) will have a big change in the later state.

To let you get a better understanding let me take you back to the history. Henry Tandey, a British soldier, was fighting in France in 1918 when he decided to spare one young German’s life who had entered his line of fire. If not for Henry’s kind gesture, that young German would have undoubtedly been dead. Henry’s decision of not pulling the trigger led to the death of 17 million souls from torture, starvation and mass murder in concentration camps during the Holocaust. Yes ! that young German boy was Adolf Hitler, who went on to start the most significant and devastating war our world had ever seen, World War 2. Well the World War 2 might have destined to happen as there were many factors behind it. But you can still see that the way in which saving of one life lead to the death of millions of souls.

Actually The Butterfly Effect has a mathematical background as it was discovered by a great meteorologist and mathematician Edward Lorenz. He said that “ When a butterfly flaps it’s wing in Brazil a cyclone is created in Texas.” This is completely a hypothetical way of explaining it. This is not practical as well as illogical. But this means that due to that small flap a small change might have occurred in the atmosphere which might alter the path of a cyclone. But what if millions of butterfly flaps their wings? Then definitely there will be a chaos.

They say that bombs, massive earthquakes, floods, cyclones, vast migrations have caused a drastic effect in our world. But when we retrace back the root cause of all these things which have happened then we reveal that it was due to small events or things. Don’t you find that when you try to procrastinate your small tasks then later on it becomes a collection of bigger tasks. And then finally you find it difficult to complete it. Why there is a timetable made? It is just because your small steps of completing each subject or tasks takes properly and then you complete many big tasks.

Why is it that even after doing a lot of hard work we don’t achieve our goals? This is simply due to our behaviour. This is only what a good mentor does. He just makes a small change in your behaviour and then you easily achieve your big goal. He tries to make small changes in your attitude, mind-set. No one in a day becomes Bill Gates or rather I must say a very successful person. He/she takes small steps towards their goal. And then that persons small steps gives him a great success, gives him a big name and fame.

I think you might have heard during your childhood days about a race between a rabbit and a tortoise. The tortoise took small-small and constant steps and won. You might have also heard of that how a small spark catches a big fire? If I say that in an exam you forgot a small formula which deducted your 4-6 marks then this was simply due to that small formula. East India Company by taking small-small steps transformed from a trading company to the ruling one.

They say that “ Practice makes a man perfect.” But let us take a more closer look. The man became perfect because everyday he did practice. That single and small days collectively added up making it a year or two to make him perfect. The big websites which have vast information are also made from numerous small coding’s. Even high rise buildings are made from bricks which are very small when compared to that of the high rise building. If you cannot still understand this then kindly watch the way ants make their colonies. You will definitely get the idea.

Perhaps by telling you this much about this effect you might have learnt something. If yes that’s very good but if not I am going to help you out. It simply teaches us that whatever we want to achieve in our life be it related to our career or anything we must notice our behaviour and then initially we must change it in small-small parts so that our journey gets the right road to success. Whether we want to change something or want something we must break that task into small pieces to get it. Now I would like to end by a very practical quote that “Little by Little and that Little makes a Lot.”