Mark: The advice 'move fast and break things' might have built Silicon Valley, but what if it's also breaking us? Today, we're exploring a radical idea: in a world that's accelerating, the key to thriving might actually be to run slower, get lost, and let go. Michelle: Okay, that's a bold claim. 'Run slower' sounds like a luxury most people can't afford, especially right now. It feels like a recipe for getting left behind. Mark: Exactly! And that's the tension at the heart of the book we're diving into today: Flux: 8 Superpowers for Thriving in Constant Change by April Rinne. What's incredible is that Rinne isn't just a theorist; she's a futurist and global advisor whose ideas were forged in profound personal tragedy. Michelle: Oh, I heard about that. Didn't she lose both her parents very suddenly when she was young? Mark: She did, in a car accident when she was just twenty years old. And that single event became the catalyst for a 25-year journey to understand change. It’s what makes this book so powerful—it’s not just an academic exercise; it’s a manual for survival and, ultimately, for thriving.

Mark: That tragedy forced her to see that the 'old scripts' we're all given for life—you know, go to school, get a good job, climb the ladder, have a five-year plan—are incredibly fragile. One phone call, and her entire script was erased. Michelle: It’s like trying to run a brand new, complex video game on a computer from 1995. The hardware, our old mental model, just can't handle the new reality. It's bound to crash. Mark: That's a perfect analogy. Rinne argues we are all running on outdated software. The world is in a state of constant flux—technologically, socially, environmentally—but we're still using a playbook that assumes stability and predictability. Her core idea is that we need to stop trying to manage change and instead develop a 'Flux Mindset'. Michelle: And what does a 'Flux Mindset' actually mean? Is it just about being more 'go with the flow'? Mark: It's deeper than that. It's about fundamentally rewriting your internal script. After her parents' death, everyone told her to get back on track, to stick to the plan. But she realized there was no track left. So instead of jumping back into a traditional career, she did something that looked like a massive detour. She took a job researching and guiding hiking and biking trips around the world. Michelle: Wow. So she leaned into the chaos instead of away from it. Mark: Exactly. For nearly four years, she traveled to over a hundred countries. She was intentionally getting lost, living at the pace of whatever culture she was in. From the outside, it might have looked like she was running away or falling behind. But from her perspective, she was 'running slower' to figure out what she was actually running towards. She was writing a new script, one that wasn't about a destination but about navigation. Michelle: But that's the thing, right? Most people can't just drop everything and travel the world for four years. That feels like a privilege. How does this 'Flux Mindset' apply to someone who feels stuck in that old script, with a mortgage and kids and a demanding job? Mark: That’s the crucial point she makes. It's a mindset first, not necessarily a life overhaul. It starts with how you perceive the small, daily fluxes. When your flight is delayed, is your first reaction frustration and a feeling of losing control? Or can you see it as an unexpected pocket of time to read or think? When a project at work gets cancelled, is it a failure, or is it an opportunity to pivot to something more important? Michelle: So it’s about training your brain to see opportunity in the disruption, rather than just the disruption itself. Mark: Precisely. It's about building your own internal compass, so that when the map the world gave you becomes useless, you can still find your way. And that compass is built by developing what she calls the eight Flux Superpowers.

Mark: And that brings us to the most provocative parts of the book—the superpowers. The very first one, which you flagged earlier, is 'Run Slower'. Michelle: I’m still stuck on this one. In this economy, in our 'always-on' culture, how is running slower not just a form of giving up? It sounds nice, but completely impractical. Mark: It feels that way because we're so conditioned by the old script that equates speed with progress. But Rinne flips that. She asks, what are we running so fast for? The finish line keeps moving. We're burning out chasing a horizon we'll never reach. Running slower isn't about being lazy; it's about being strategic. Michelle: Okay, I need an example. How is slow strategic? Mark: She points to the Dutch concept of niksen. It literally means 'to do nothing,' to be idle without a purpose. Just staring out a window or sitting in a chair. And research shows that this intentional 'not-doing' leads to lower anxiety, a better immune system, and, paradoxically, more creativity and better problem-solving. Your brain gets to work in the background when you're not actively hammering it with tasks. Michelle: Huh. The art of doing nothing. I like that. It's like my brain's 'defrag' mode. Mark: Exactly. Or think of the Navy SEALs' adage: "Slow is smooth. Smooth is fast." When you rush, you make mistakes. You have to go back and fix them. When you move deliberately and slowly, you're more precise. You get it right the first time. In the long run, slow is actually faster. It's about optimizing for presence, not just productivity. Michelle: I can see that. It’s the difference between frantically typing an email full of typos versus taking an extra minute to write a clear, effective one. One feels faster, but the other gets a better result. Mark: And that leads directly to the next superpower, which is just as counter-intuitive: 'Get Lost'. Michelle: Another one that sounds like terrible advice! My GPS would strongly disagree. Mark: Rinne makes a beautiful distinction here. She says there's a difference between losing things—which is about the familiar falling away—and getting lost, which is about the unfamiliar appearing. Getting lost isn't a failure; it's an invitation. Michelle: An invitation to what? Panic? Mark: An invitation to discover. She tells this incredible story about traveling alone in Bukovina, a remote part of Romania, back before smartphones. She was walking down a lane, unsure of her exact location, when an old Romanian grandmother started yelling at her from a porch. Michelle: That sounds terrifying. Mark: It was startling! But the grandmother wasn't angry; she was concerned. She assumed a young woman traveling alone must be lost and in trouble. She insisted April come inside for dinner. The whole family was there, and they fed her and peppered her with questions, completely baffled that she didn't have a husband or a group with her. They saw her independence as a vulnerability. Michelle: So it was a total culture clash of scripts. Her script was 'independent traveler,' and theirs was 'a woman alone is in danger.' Mark: Exactly. And after dinner, the grandmother’s son wouldn't just point her to the train station. He drove her there, bought her ticket, and made sure she was safely on the train before he left. She realized that what felt like an intrusion was actually profound care. In getting lost, she found this incredible pocket of humanity. She didn't fail at navigation; she succeeded at connection. Michelle: Wow. So getting lost is about being open to the detours, to the things that aren't on the official map. Mark: Yes! She even introduces a wonderful English slang term: coddiwomple. It means 'to travel purposefully toward an unknown destination.' That's the essence of the 'Get Lost' superpower. It’s not aimless wandering. It's moving with purpose, but without a rigid attachment to the outcome. Michelle: So 'running slower' gives you the space to notice the detours, and 'getting lost' is about having the courage to actually take them. They really do feed each other. Mark: They're completely interconnected. And they're both about letting go of the illusion of control, which is probably the hardest part of the old script to delete.

Michelle: So when we boil it all down, this isn't really a book about '8 easy steps.' It feels more like a deep philosophical shift. What's the one thing we absolutely cannot miss from this? Mark: It's that our obsession with control and certainty is the very thing making us so fragile in this world. The book argues that true resilience doesn't come from having a better plan; it comes from building a better compass. Your values, your ability to trust, your sense of 'enough'—that's your anchor. April Rinne's life was shattered, but she didn't rebuild a plan; she rebuilt a compass. That's the core of the Flux Mindset. Michelle: And that compass lets you navigate any future, not just the one you predicted. That's a really powerful idea. It's less about predicting the weather and more about building a boat that can handle any storm. Mark: That's the perfect way to put it. The book has been widely praised, even shortlisted for literary awards, because it gives people a new language for this feeling we all have—that the ground is shifting beneath our feet. It gives us permission to stop pretending we have all the answers. Michelle: It’s permission to be human in a world that increasingly demands us to be machines. Mark: Exactly. So the question for everyone listening is: What's one 'old script' you're still running in your life that's no longer serving you? Is it the belief that you have to be busy to be valuable? Or that not having a five-year plan is a sign of failure? Michelle: That's a great question. We'd love to hear your thoughts. Find us on our socials and share your answer. It's a conversation we all need to be having, because it feels like we're all trying to figure this out together. Mark: This is Aibrary, signing off.