The Red Queen Hypothesis

Lewis Carroll wrote “Through the Looking Glass” in 1872, a sequel to “Alice in Wonderland.” In chapter 2, Alice finds herself walking along with the Red Queen. They move through a valley and then up a hill. At the top of the hill, the Red Queen begins to run, faster and faster. Alice runs after the Red Queen, but is further perplexed to find that neither one seems to be moving. When they stop running, they are in exactly the same place. Alice remarks on this, to which the Red Queen responds: "Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do to keep in the same place".

This led to the development of a scientific principle with regards to co-evolution – evolution between predator and prey. The theory is that each evolves as quickly as possible, only to remain where they are.

Recently, I have taken this hypothesis into my own life. (Not in terms of evolution, that was merely a bit of trivia for you all, so this blog entry doesn’t make you stupider. Which, frankly, is always a risk if you are reading something I have written…) My hypothesis is that it doesn’t matter how much I accomplish in one day, I don’t get anywhere.

I have stacks and piles and lists of projects and things that need my attention. I work on them constantly, but I never feel like I am winning the project war. To paraphrase: I run all that I can to keep in the same place. Am I alone here?

I would take more time to rant, but that isn’t running…