What Max Verstappen Teaches My Dutch Brain about Nature and Technology

It is Sunday, December 12, 2021. And our small apartment in Greece heats up. We have no TV, so we watch the blog. Little texts pop up every time. It’s Formula 1 racing time and my husband Mike is tense.

You might not expect it from two Dutchies who made Gaia and Humanity their mission but we follow the race with fire in our bones.

Why?

We’re Dutch. Max Verstappen is from our region Limburg. We followed the career of his father, Jos Verstappen. We know his village well. And we have a huge admiration for Max’s talent. His passion. His flame and fire.

Personally, I’m not that much into racing, I must admit. 15 years ago, I visited the regional kart racing circuit often and I might even have seen the young boy Max race. The kart scene was mine because one of my friends’ sons was a talented driver.

However, I’m very glad we have no TV now because I cannot stand the sound of it all. As a nature-admirer, I’m always disappointed that humans are not able to create fast growth, much like a pioneer tree does, without so much sound pollution.

But well, we’re a toddler species on this earth. So we’ll learn, I guess. And I do see the benefits of technological progress for what we want to create in the world. Minimizing, maximizing, and optimizing.

So, what do I learn about nature, life, and technology from Max? And what might you learn too?

Minimizing Materials

One of the tools in our sustainability think-and-do-tank Abundanism is minimizing, maximizing, and optimizing. As soon as you get the hang of it, life becomes easy.

Minimizing means always minimizing materials. Air is always better than stuff. Did you know 99,9999999% of our body is space?

Well, Formula 1 racing is good at minimizing materials. The next step might be that they 3D print structure instead of solid material. And retrieve the materials from plants that accumulate minerals and metals. Agroforestry and tiny forests in cities.

Awesome development that makes my biomimicry professional heart go singing!

Maximizing Functions

Formula 1 is very good at maximizing speed. But Max knows that he has to minimize his life energy drain outside of the circuit. Max is a fiery person. And he should be in his line of work. But he's not often complaining or fighting outside of the race.

Admirable. And very smart. Life energy is all.

Optimizing Within a System

In order to be the fastest, the teams have to optimize the whole system. Max has a maximum fire burning in him. But without Perez, he wouldn't have won. I read that Perez can expect everywhere free beer in my country Holland. Paid for by fans.

That's the spirit.

Businesses can learn something from this. A little competition is nice. It gives you a drive and motivation. But the real win is in collaboration. Choose the right partners not within your comfort zone but on complementarity. And the win is yours.

Nature

You can also have a look at how super fast animals do it. And emulate form, process, and system. The top 5 fastest animals are:

1. Peregrine Falcon
2. White-Throated Needletail (a fish)
3. Frigate Bird
4. Spur-winged Goose
5. Cheetah (top image)

According to National Geographic, the peregrine falcon can achieve a speed of up to 389 km/h (242 mph) diving.

I really hope the engineers will learn from these animals how to do it without so much noise. It might also be possible to create cars with way less energy use.

Do you know how nature is so energy efficient?

Hearts work together with flexible veins to pump in a rhythm together. This is how a whale's heart can pump 220 liter blood while it eats just some krill.

Also, the whale and other animals are like martial arts masters. They embrace the energy of the waves in their bodies and only have to add a little more to create huge amounts of outgoing energy themselves.

So smart! I wish all engineers would learn and use the Ask Nature database to find the translation of nature into function.

Tension

In our little apartment, the tension is not over yet. Will Max be able to keep his title now that the stewards want to see him? Yes, he did it!

I will always hold a passionately burning flame inside me for the wild feminine and wild nature. For so long, we have been curtailed. It’s time to reinstate feminine and nature values for the better of our whole humanity.

Does that mean that men have to become like women? Nah, I don’t think so. Their value has value too. Personally, I do appreciate some wildness in a conscious man… ;-)

Thank you, Mike, for adding your wise energy to my words on Abundanism, Simple Abundance.

A longer version of this story has first been published on Medium.

© Désirée Driesenaar, 2021