Navigating Complexity

We Need a Theory of Generativity and Degenerativity to Help Transform Mindfully

Let’s be honest—these days, life feels overwhelming. The world’s challenges are piling up, and like many, I often find myself stuck in a loop of frustration. And here’s the thing: frustration is normal. It’s a universal feeling we’ve all shared at one point or another. But what’s really troubling is how easily frustration morphs into polarization—the kind that fuels pointless arguments and deadlocks conversations. Take whataboutism, for example. It’s one of the worst offenders. Instead of solving problems, it derails discussions and keeps us spinning in circles, dangerously close to chaos.

Frustration itself is a bit of a paradox. It can either push us to innovate and grow or drag us down into destructive opportunism, where short-term self-interest ends up damaging long-term progress. The real challenge? Figuring out how to channel our collective frustrations in a way that leads to creativity and solutions, not division. This isn’t easy, especially when you consider how messy and complicated today’s world is. There are so many players involved, each with their own priorities, that it’s hard to separate what’s real from what we think is real. Zvi Lanir, a scholar in this field, calls this mismatch a “relevance gap.”

Relevance gaps are more than just misunderstandings—they’re barriers. These gaps stop people from working together effectively, and the bigger they get, the harder collaboration becomes. What’s the solution? It starts with maturity. No, not the “act your age” kind of maturity, but a deeper process where we develop better skills, adapt to change, and evolve as a society. It’s tough, yes, but essential if we want to deal with the chaos around us.

Right now, we’re at a crossroads. One road leads to collapse, the other to renewal. How we handle frustration will decide which path we take. If we use frustration as fuel for creativity, it can spark transformative change. But if we let it fester into harmful opportunism, it’ll tear us apart. This choice isn’t theoretical—it’s happening right now, and the stakes couldn’t be higher.

So, what can we do? First, we need to manage our frustrations without letting them consume us. Second, we have to build the skills and capacity to bridge those relevance gaps I mentioned earlier. Frustration isn’t just a symptom of our problems—it’s also a signal. It points us toward what needs fixing and where we have room to grow.

The goal here isn’t to eliminate frustration entirely (good luck with that—it’s impossible). Instead, we need to transform it. Can we take those feelings of anger and helplessness and use them as tools for growth and renewal? That’s the real challenge. The ultimate test of our maturity as a society isn’t whether we can survive the chaos—it’s whether we can thrive by intentionally choosing integration and progress over division and decay.