The universe is full with waves and curves. However, some people seem to get quicker to targets and achieve more than others. These others might swirl around a bit without any clear directions. Going on a straight path towards your target, is what I call going linear. But getting to your goals in a direct path is a difficult thing to achieve, many people take in-direct (non-linear) roads towards the thing they (eventually) desire. In the world we live in, it’s almost impossible to get directly what you want, and to even know what you want. But once you do, you could be considered to be a linearity. And this has many advantages which I will describe in this blog.

The internal linearity
Imagine you know exactly what you want. You’ll bow for no one, no one will stop you from getting there. Your dedication makes you walk through a straight line. Like a indestructible tank on the battlefield, like Godzilla in a city, like a hot knife in a cube of butter. When things are in your way, you will bend them. Great leaders have this quality. They have just a view ideals that they hold on to, an end-goal in sight. Showing linearity makes it easy for perceivers to understand their cause. You’ll know which steps they need to take to reach their goal. Linearities are predictable. They do not change suddenly, they do not bend easily. In science, movies, and music we try to find linearity within the patterns to increase our understanding of the rhythm, to understand what is going on, and to know the next steps. Linearity gives us certainty, something to hold on to. In a world full of curves, like failed promises, or sudden discourses, linearities are great to hold on too for people who haven’t got a clear straight path of their own. When you directly tell your goals to the people you are with, they understand why you are there. If you run a company and have an end-goal in sight, your employees know what they’ll need to do to support you. Your linear path reduces distraction, uncertainty, and makes you someone to rely on, someone to follow, someone with a course.

How I imagine linearity, thick straight lines represent clusters of people going linear paths (one paradigm), while curvy paths follow (with unclear or multiple paradigms)

External linearity
But it is hard to be a linearity, because you need to know your end-goal, you can’t hesitate, you can’t curve. However, the environment is quite dynamic and hard to predict. The environment can directly influence your course, or influence your internal dynamics making you want to change course.  There are a lot of different flows which have different desires. The environment can block your linear path, forcing you to find a path around it. However, you could also find flows which have a certain linear inertia on which you can hop on easily. By flowing along you can keep a straight path of little resistance in which is hardly necessary to change directions. Big trends in society are examples of external linearities on which you would find little resistance when participating in them.

A combination of the self and the environment
In modern times, entrepreneurs are a relative good example of linear people. They have a linear path with their business and are often able to mold the environment towards their linear path. Employees follow their linear path towards a common goal, the goal initiated by the entrepreneur. But in modern times, there is a huge risk in being linear, mainly because the environment is huge and vastly dynamic. The courses of humanity change quickly through innovation and disruptive technology. Being able to go a linear path, without adapting to the environment seems like an impossible thing to do in the modern era. This one of the reasons why politicians are struggling that much today. They can’t have clear goals and linear paths, because every few months something new blocks their way that deserves attention, and thus requires a change in their path. And because of that, they fail with their (linear) promises and loose the faith of the public. Instead, politicians make ambiguous promises or make complex goals to keep up their linear appearance. But more populist politicians take a more straight path, seemingly simplistic. They try to get everyone on board by stating clear directions. Moreover, through manipulations you can redirect the environment into directions you desire.

Feedback and changing course
In modern times, social media is of large influence on the courses of our “linear” leaders. Through trending topics, leaders are forced to respond and often change their path. Basically, social media (but also voting and discussions) act as feedback mechanism to the leaders of our country, but also to you personally. Feedback could make you change your path and direction. By processing feedback, you change your inherent linearity but you align better with the linearity of the ones who you provide the feedback. For example, if a politician is asked to stop drilling at the North Pole by his supporters (who strive for sustainability), the politician could align with his supporters by stopping with drilling. As a result, the politician looses his own linearity, but he aligns with a large linearity; his supporters.

Conclusions
Keeping a linear path is quite impossible in the world we live now. The environment is strong and dynamic, influencing you everyday. These dynamics can be quite useful in assisting you towards an impacting role. Nevertheless, a system should always try to keep some linearity, and find coherent linearity within its environment to sustain itself; aka, finding like minded-people that can support you. Because being a linearity, as far as you can, gives you certainty and a direction, within this dynamic world full of non-linear waves.