The Wild World of Chaos: Why Predicting the Future Is Tougher Than You Think

Imagine a system, anything from a car engine to a busy city, the human body, an organization, or even the weather. General system theory says all the parts team up to create something bigger than themselves (Bertalanffy, 1969). But chaos theory throws a curveball: even a tiny nudge—like a butterfly flapping its wings—can send everything off in wild, unexpected directions (Smith, 2020). That makes guessing what’s next a tricky bet, if not a total long shot. Let’s dive into chaos theory, figure out why the world’s so hard to predict, and see how we can use that unpredictability in real life.