ADAPT | Curious Quotes

Our journey through Curious Quotes started 11 weeks ago with CHANGE, and now we end with the elusive 11th Universal Theme, ADAPT! At first I felt the same way about ADAPT as I did about going into RELATIONSHIPS. Surely, there are plenty of quotes on the subject. Again, I was wrong.

​Along the way, I started wondering, "How is ADAPT significantly different than CHANGE?" 

While putting this series together, I noted that sometimes ADAPT is a part of the list of Universal Themes. Other times it is completely absent. Then things got ever stranger. At first I could not find a list of generalizations. So, I asked for help, and Ashley Darr, Trinette Atri, and Morgan Gilmore answered with some "just in time" knowledge. The thing was that their lists were different! There were lists with 4, 5, or even 6 items! Here's the list of all six. 

As I said, I ran into an issue finding quotes about adapt or adaptations. So, I substituted CHANGE for ADAPT. Try doing that with the list above! Do the generalizations still work? 

Hmm.... Change leads to CHANGE is quite intriguing! Also, "Change generates additional change" was the very first generalization that we encountered. 

Before we ADAPT and "change to change", let's start with this quote from Academy Award Winning Actress Viola Davis. I really like this quote because Davis talks about the importance that failure plays in the creative and learning process. Failure is not the end of the road. Instead, one has to be able to fail and then keep moving forward. 

Next, consider this quote from Stephen Hawking. How does this quote relate to the previous one from Viola Davis. Here Hawking sets up an interesting conundrum given our substitution of change for adapt. If we insert change for adapt in this quote, does it still work? Perhaps change as Hawking is using it here is something that is external. The adapting is something we do internally. What do you think about this? 

Also, I really love seeing photos of people's work spaces. Be on the lookout for a future project related to work spaces! It's on my list of things that I definitely want to do in the not too distant future. 

I have a complete fascination with road signs, and I took H. G. Wells' cautionary quote as my chance to remix a CAUTION sign. Adapt or perish! Wow! That is a compelling choice! This quote also has some excellent vocabulary and awesome alliteration. Inexorable imperative is fun to say. Try it! Go ahead. Say it out loud. Inexorable imperative. Makes me think. 

As we are brining the Curious Quotes and Universal Themes series to a close, I took the opportunity to go back and look at the previous 50 slides in the series. I was kind of surprised that we had not heard yet from Maya Angelou. Here we switch from adapt to change. Try using adapt instead of change in the quote. Does it work better or worse? How is the meaning changed by using adapt? 

We end this series with one final quote from Anatole France. Rather than creating a picturesque final slide, I decided to try to keep it as simple as possible because sometimes less is more. Instead, I played with the spacing and aligned "we" in a column.
Consider how GROW relates to CHANGE and ADAPT. 

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