trimtabbing

                                                                                                          

                                                                                           changing the course of our world

                                                                               

                                                                      workshops and consulting with Jaime Snyder

               

the trimtab principle

Something hit me very hard once, thinking about what one little man could do. Think of the Queen Mary—the whole ship goes by and then comes the rudder. And there’s a tiny thing on the edge of the rudder called a trim-tab.  It’s a miniature rudder. Just moving that little trim-tab builds a low pressure that pulls the rudder around. Takes almost no effort at all. So I said that the little individual can be a trim-tab. Society thinks it’s going right by you, that it’s left you altogether … the fact is that you can just put your foot out like that and the whole big ship of state is going to go. So I said, “ Call me Trimtab.”  R. Buckminster Fuller.

“The beauty of that little trim tab is that it elegantly demonstrates the answer to the question: What can individuals do to change the world? And it is precisely that Bucky had found a tested and well-utilized invention, derived from the principles of nature, that can bring confidence in its objective confirmation of what is possible for individuals. But perhaps more importantly, in these times when we are faced with gargantuan problems and unfathomably large forces invested in their persistence, the trim tab gives us a clue as to how little individuals can be effective in the face of such odds. Not only does it demonstrate that a little device can steer a very large system, it shows us that the absolutely highest leverage spot in steering the system of that ship is perhaps where one would least expect it, at the very trailing edge of the rudder, at the very back (i.e., stern) of the ship. Trim tabs also remind us that the front lines of the design revolution are not necessarily in Washington, DC, or in any other global capital; regardless of the merits of a given politician, we are being completely imprudent to act as if we can leave “ the mess” to them. The trim tabs of “ individual initiative” that drive the necessary changes can turn in the day-to-day actions of each and every one of us.” Jaime Snyder 2009 introductory essay to Ideas and Integrities and Education Automation.