In his book of the same name, Buckminster Fuller made popular the notion of a ‘critical path.’ Paraphrasing his basic explanation of it, think of the modern rocket - a magical marvel of human engineering, effort and achievement.
A lot many things need to converge, and converge well, for something like the rocket to be possible. Among them, and one of the most important, is the ability of controlled combustion. A remarkable ability this is, to be able to invoke fire and fury at such scales, yet for it to be controlled and managed such that it only propels a rocket upwards with escape velocity.
Now, controlled combustion has its own trajectory, and our species has been able to exercise it with increasing power till we eventually reached levels required for the rocket to be possible. But the earliest, most primitive form of controlled combustion of course was fire itself. And thus,
The critical path of human technological development that was needed for the modern rocket began with that first flame of controlled fire by the earliest hominid.
Nothing in that primal moment guaranteed the modern rocket, but the modern rocket absolutely requires that moment in its critical path. A ‘critical path’ is thus understood as the series of crucial steps that must be taken for any given thing to be possible. Fuller himself envisioned this in context of a sustainable and peaceful human future, and asked what would be required in the critical path for such a civilization to be possible.
Thus understood, we could conduct all kinds of thought experiments to identify the critical paths of modern technologies. For example, the ancient potter’s wheel lies in the critical path of the modern automobile; or the understanding of electromagnetism lies in the critical path of smartphones; etc. When we do this, we can see that identifying critical paths in hindsight is actually quite easy. While things do get fuzzy when we apply this to sociocultural phenomena (what lies in the critical path that leads to modern wokism? what was the critical path that ensured India’s fall to colonization?), the benefit of hindsight still confers upon us more certainties than vacant spaces.
What’s actually difficult is conceiving of critical paths in the future.
Future Critical Paths, and Visionaries
Envisioning future critical paths takes us into uncharted territories, and there is no way to know how right/wrong we are except to wait for time to reveal it to us. But this is where some among us are able to stand out more than others. There are some who not only conceive essential critical paths running into the future, they are also able to actually walk upon such paths (or point/guide us to them).
An example of this is Elon Musk. Whatever one may think of him, this series of articles at the brilliant Wait But Why blog shows how the man has identified several essential steps that humanity must take to become a multi-planetary species, and that most of his ventures are key contributors to making that possible.
It is those among us who can see critical paths into the future that end up getting remembered as visionaries.
The Critical Path of Your Life
Fuller’s idea isn’t restricted to human collective trajectory - it has profound implications for any individual life, especially for youngsters just stepping into the adult world. As a youngster in their teens or even tweens, it is easy to look at those in their 40s, 50s etc. and feel awed. Those “elder” people seem to be so well-read, so well-accomplished. They’ve done so much in their lives, know so much, or appear so extremely competent in their fields.
This awe often turns to a sense of being daunted. I could never be like that, we sometimes think. I know nothing, or I could never read so much/become so competent. These kind of feelings are result of not understanding the critical path of an individual life.
For in looking at any accomplished person in say, their 40s, what a 20-something must do is look at what that person was doing in their own 20s:
- what was a person that appears comprehensively authoritative on the Vedic scriptures in their 40s, doing twenty years prior at the age of 21? What did they do through their 20s?
- for the writer able to create immersive worlds and sagas that are published as several books over a decade, what was that writer up to as a 17 year old, or as a 25 year old?
- for a senior web developer creating amazing design and websites that seem totally out of one’s reach, what computing technologies was this developer playing with as a young boy/girl?
The above cases highlight that at any given point in one’s life, where they are and how competent/accomplished they are is a function of an elaborate critical path that begins in one’s childhood.
To explain this better, I will take the case of my own journey on the trajectory of design.
Tracing My Own Critical Path
In 2010, while in college, I was involved in organizing some college events that needed posters and mailers. A friend suggested that a basic introduction to Adobe Photoshop could skill me up to make the posters myself. So I spent maybe an hour with him and learnt the basic ropes. By 2012, when I encountered amazing digital art online of space, planets and spaceships I was filled with the desire to make such stuff myself. A quick online search revealed that this was indeed possible on Photoshop.
So I perused some tutorials and began making my own stuff. Some of my creations during that phase:
Between 2012 - 15 I played around with Photoshop a lot, eventually discovering a tool called Rainmeter which helps one make custom desktop interfaces for Windows. With graphics one created, and only the most basic if/then kind of code, one could create amazing interfaces like the one below, which has seen more than 2 million views, and was featured in a Japanese e-zine on graphic design.
By this time I’d not only become quite familiar with Photoshop, I’d also come to love designing in general. And so at the workplace, instead of working with design agencies, I preferred to design my own collaterals when managing a brand. Over 3 years I created shade cards, packaging, product brochures - all on my own. In time I grew some familiarity with other tools like Adobe Illustrator and Autodesk 3ds max. It was not even a required workplace competence, and colleagues often asked - ’why do you put in effort on this when you could easily get the agency to do this?’
i did it because i enjoyed it, simple.
This engagement with design and design tools continued such that in 2021 I learnt of Figma - a new entrant on the graphic design scene. Figma was an absolute delight, and indeed I became a better designer just by using it and learning more through that.
Cut to 2022, when I joined a new firm. There, I designed our logo, the subbrands logos, and the complete website. In the early days, I designed all our marketing collaterals as well. Now, you may or may not like the design, but when I encounter those who appreciate it, and especially youngsters who look up to this kind of design, all the above critical path is what comes to mind.
Could I have been a 35-year old designer in 2021, had I not been a 26-year old dabbler in Photoshop in 2012? And in fact the critical path goes further back, for as a 15-year old in 2001 I was tinkering with Yahoo Geocities, website creation, and a personal toy-site I had named radcatdotcom.
So the youngster who looks at me today should not focus on today, but on the events of a decade and two decades ago - for those are the events they can recreate at the current stage of their lives. Put another way, at any given time we must realise-
you are living crucial steps in your own critical path RIGHT NOW. or you are missing them.
Either way, you will realize the compounding an import of this a decade, two decades or at some later point in your life. If you undertake the right crucial steps in the journey to then, you will experience compounding. If not, you will not have the time to make up for it.