How to explain anything to anyone: Braess's Paradox, the volvox colony, and a dragon eats his tail

Sometime in the 1970s I saw a movie about a spy, very much like James Bond. I just can't remember his name. The movie was pivotal in my success in communicating big business and technological concepts to average people. This technique is, perhaps, something they can benefit you.

At one point in the movie, the big, evil CEO of the company gets up to give a speech. What shows on the projector is a Dragon eating his own tale. Evil CEO starts his speech, not by talking about a new business topic, but about the dragon eating his tail -- and why. After the tail eating story, the evil CEO starts talking about the business, and tying the business points, point by point, to the story of the tail eating dragon. Brilliant. So brilliant, it's the only thing out of the movie that I can remember with any clarity. The day, I adopted this technique for many of my public speaking engagements.

The "bucket of green slime" speech.

For several years during the early 1980s, I gave what became known as the "Green Slime Speech." At the beginning of the speech, I told the story of volvox colony. Volvox are unicellular microorganisms that have a nasty habit of turning water into a brownish green sludge. However, given the right provocation, enough time, and the right temperature, the brown green sludge condenses itself into a multicellular colony of creatures in which the individual one celled animals take on particular roles based on where they end up living in a colony. The water turns crystal clear.

See! What could a bucket of green brown sledge possibly have to do with high-tech anything, particularly computer software? Nothing actually. It was an analogy. Most computer projects, in that day and age, were late! Late projects are like a bucket of green slime. They are messy, and generally left a bad taste in your mouth, just like the green slime. However, given some time, organization, and management principles, projects could be organized and controlled, much like the orderd volvox colony that ultimately congealed, with the right provocation, and left the water clear.

The loop around the city.

One day, a city road engineer got annoyed at taking this outer loop highway around the city. Wouldn't it be faster, for a least a third of the highway users if they just put a new North/South arterial right through the middle of the city? Sounds good.

Whoops.

Traffic bogged down on the other loop -- writing at the junction with the north-south arterial! Now, traffic was, in general, slower everywhere. A paradox! An unintended consequence. Something which mere mortal logic could not foresee. How many times in our daily business lives do we think up a quick answer to a problem?

One third of the time, that brilliant idea actually improves things.

One third of the time, that same brilliant idea does nothing with respect to productivity.

One third of the time, the idea actually makes the situation noticeably worse!

This story actually drew upon an analogy called Braess's Paradox which explains why extra transaction handling circuitry placed inside a computer chip, at random, actually slows the computer chip down. Very esoteric. The Road's story is actually easier to understand!

However, Braess's Paradox and the story of the highway loop may a great analogy for why two thirds of our off the cuff business decisions have, at best, no impact on the business. It also shows what type of analysis must be done in order to make sound, rational decisions. A great analogy.

The power of analogy.

You will see analogies in my writing from time to time. They are there to make you think, to look at a problem from a new angle, or just to shake the brain awake. Think of ways to use analogies in your explanations. Most importantly, analogies make discussions and explanations memorable. 20 years later, somebody still reminds me of that "green slime speech."