More Than It Seems

661 words, < 3 minutes

It is helpful to remember that we only see what is on the surface, never what it took to get there. Complexity is hidden inside, and there is always more to the story than just the cover. That goes for books, people, projects, adventures, and definitely adventure book projects with people.

A simple rule of geometry is that as size increases, the surface area is squared, and the volume is cubed. What is inside increases exponentially.

We’re not very good at imagining exponential growth, and our brains break when expectations don’t match reality. Our theory is that we spend so much time staring at screens that we often forget that our world is multi-dimensional and has depth and volume.

It turns out that adding and subtracting is more complicated when you dig a little deeper. What changes when we go beyond surface impressions and arithmetic and apply volume to group dynamics, projects, and adventures?

More than it seems.

Applying dimensional thinking is different.

Food

Smaller things have a higher ratio of surface area to volume. When we’re making candied pecans, the bits and pieces have more sugary goodness on the outside than a whole pecan. (By the way, reach out if you want our super simple, delicious recipe for pecan trail snacks.) Likewise, bigger chocolate truffles can have more chocolate on the inside than we think. 

Food is relatively straightforward. People and projects are more complicated.

Groups and Projects

When we add someone to a group, we’re not just adding someone to the group, we are exponentially increasing the complexity of group dynamics (also see the Slinky Effect). If you have 10 people in a group, there are 45 connections between individuals ((n*(n-1))/2). That means there are 45 unique relationships, and each time signals get crossed, there is a potential for friction or inspiration. Adding an 11th person creates 10 new relationships that change the shape of the group and every other connection. Adding or subtracting items to a project has the same relationship.

Now shift from 2D connections and consider the growing volume of the group or project. When size increases, volume increases faster than surface area, and diffusion (movement of anything from one area to another) takes longer and is less effective. The constraints of diffusion are one reason why communication in larger groups becomes increasingly more difficult.

We can imagine the surface-level connection, but there is much more inside that we can’t see. Motivation, likes, dislikes, anxieties, etc., are hidden and occupy more physical and mental space than we realize. 

The best groups rearrange to make space for everyone. 

By the way, that reminds me of one classic joke. What do you do when you see a spaceman? You park, man. 

Adventure Planning Time

If the goal is to be flexible and move fast, a solo adventure is ideal. Solo travel is more efficient, but the most profound and memorable moments we’ve had outdoors were based on the deep connections we had with others. 

And, we haven’t even brought time into the mix yet. 

It surprises us how often adding in the real world isn’t adding, it’s exponential multiplication. Everyone loves a long weekend. An extra day makes all the difference because it feels like more than adding a day. Going from two days to three days gives us 50% more weekend. That sounds great, but if we think about adventures in terms of surface area, we more than double our weekend (125% increase). And, if we’re willing to think a little deeper, a 3-day weekend has three times the volume of a regular weekend (a 237% increase). 

Adding an extra day to an adventure introduces more complexity and the potential for more and deeper connections. That’s why we are advocates for overnight adventures. A little more adventure is probably better for everyone.

*Technically, the rate of change in surface area and volume decreases with each additional day, so there is a diminishing rate of return for longer adventures and increasing complexity.