Undisruptable

9Crab Curves

Figure 9.1 Leaving room to grow

‘Death is nature's way of making things continually interesting. Death is the possibility of change. Every individual gets its allotted lifespan, its chance to try something new on the world. But time is called and the molecules which make up leaf and limb, heart and eye are disassembled and redistributed to other tenants'.

— Peter Steinhart, The Company of Wolves

Have you ever seen an empty crab shell lying on the beach? Perhaps you mistook it for the remnants of a dead crab. It turns out the discarded shell does not signify the end of life, but marks the beginning of a new cycle.

Crabs are invertebrates, animals that don't have a backbone or spine. An arthropod is an invertebrate with an external skeleton called an exoskeleton. Arthropods include spiders, our friend the caterpillar and crustaceans such as lobsters and crabs. The exoskeleton of these animals is inelastic, so they eventually outgrow their shells. Just like the caterpillar, which moults its skin several times before the great metamorphosis into a butterfly, the crab sheds its shell as it evolves throughout its life.

The evolution of the crab provides a wonderful lens to consider how we outgrow our stations in life: our careers, our skill sets and our habits. I include organisations, because unless they provide people with scope to develop, they constrict growth. ...