Change Is Not A Four Letter Word

The joke goes something like this: Werner Heisenberg is pulled over by a policeman while driving down a highway, the policeman gets out of his car, walks towards Heisenberg's window and motions with his hand for Heisenberg to wind the window down, which he does. The policeman then says "Do you know how fast you were going sir?", to which Heisenberg responds "No, but I knew exactly where I was."

Perhaps some explanation is required. In quantum physics, the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle states that the values of certain pairs of conjugate variables (position and momentum, for example) cannot both be known with arbitrary precision. That is, the more precisely one variable is known, the less precisely the other is known. This is not a statement about the limitations of an observer's ability to measure particular quantities of a system, but rather about the nature of the system itself.

There are exactly no states, in quantum mechanics, which describe a particle with both a definite position and a definite momentum. The narrower the probability distribution is for the position, the wider it is in momentum and vice versa. The principle requires that when the position of an atom is measured, the measurement process will leave the momentum of the atom changed by an uncertain amount inversely proportional to the accuracy of the measurement.

The uncertainty principle is related to the observer effect, which refers to changes that the act of observation will make on the phenomenon being observed, however, the two are often confused. As Bell's Theorem suggests, the state of a system does not exist independently of its observer. In other words: to observe something is to change that which is being observed. Why do I care?

Well, the two primary themes that old Werner was really hammering away at are "change" and "observation" and both have been rattling around in my noggin for the past couple of days. It seems that I will soon be going through another period of big changes - you know - career, life and whatnot. The "handwriting" is on the walls of Wall Street - who could have known that I'd pick the worst time to become a stock broker since 1929?

Fortunately, I've grown quite accomplished at reading handwritten walls over the years, and still better at accepting (dare I say seeking?) change. Accordingly, I have been dropping those proverbial hooks in the water - this is what one does, right? The difference this time stems from the year I have spent in the investment banking world.

I've learned that it is just as easy to drop a really big hook in the sea of opportunity as it is to drop the little "Craigslist" kind. Hanging out with and observing people who buy entire coal mines for their personal portfolios, or who put together $100 million syndicates for some venture or other (taking a measly 10% as their fee) changes one's perspective as to just how vast the array of possibilities is. The absurd becomes commonplace.

Upon reflection, perhaps Heisenberg and Bell had it backwards. Maybe it is the observer not the system that is changed by the process of observation - perhaps both? It seems clear that as a result of this experience my thinking has changed (yet again), as have the set of opportunities I choose to embrace.