‘If men were born free, they would, so long as they remained free, form no conception of good and evil.’ –Spinoza
The Chaos Theory of Careers (CTC) characterises individuals as complex systems subject to the influence of complex influences and chance events. However, over time patterns emerge in our behaviour that are self-similar but also subject to change.
Career trajectories / histories / stories are examples of such complex fractal patterns.
Our careers are subject to chance events far more frequently than just about any theory other than CTC and Happenstance Learning Theory would suggest.
Our careers are subject to non linear change — sometimes small steps have profound outcomes, and sometimes changing everything changes nothing.
Our careers are unpredictable, with most people expressing a degree of surprise/delight or disappointment at where they ended up.
Our careers are subject to continual change. Sometimes we experience slow shift (Bright, 2008) that results in us drifting off course without realising it, and sometimes our careers have dramatic (fast shift) changes which completely turn our world upside down.
photo { Arno Rafael Minkkinen }
