I used this example for the first time at the Regenerative Design Lab and so I am sharing it here. It is about how time and conditions shape what we create. It is about finding the best fit.
If you take a super saturated solution and cool it down, at some point, crystals will start forming in the solution. If you cool the solution quickly, the crystals appear suddenly. They are small and jumbled up. In chemistry this is called the ‘kinetic product’.
But if you cool the solution very slowly, the crystal formation is very gradual. If you are very careful you can even create one single giant crystal. This slower version is called the ‘thermodynamic product’.
In the kinetic product, because the solution is cooling quickly, the crystals just form from the ions in whatever location they happen to be at that moment. It is a product of convenience, but is full of internal stresses and fractures.
In the thermodynamic product, because the solution is cooling slowly, the ions have time to arrange themselves into their ideal equilibrium position in the crystal. There are fewer internal stresses and fractures. The ions exist in greater harmony.
And so to design. When engineers (and other humans) develop a design, are developing a kinetic answer, that is quick and convenient? Or a thermodynamic answer, that allows the elements of the system to find their best fit? And which approach creates a design that brings greater harmony to the parts involved?