Permaculture Design Basics: Apply Feedback

Permaculture design is founded on the basis of 12 key design principles (See What is Permaculture for a full list). No matter where you are in life, what resources you have available, and what lifestyle you live, these 12 design principles provide a framework for solving problems, working with nature, and creating spaces that are resilient and adaptive. In this series, I will go through each of the 12 permaculture design principles, explain what they mean, and share some ideas about how they can be applied to someone beginning a permaculture journey while living in a rented apartment. Check in over the coming weeks to learn about each of the principles and gain new ways of thinking about the spaces you create, wherever you might live!

Permaculture Design Basics 4 – Apply Feedback

What is Feedback?

Feedback occurs when the outputs of a system circle their way back around to influence how the system functions. In nature, feedback is often the key to systems that self-regulate and maintain a stable equilibrium.

Feedback in Nature

For instance, this is the case when predators and prey in an ecosystem regulate one another’s populations. If there are too many predators, the prey will be pressured and become less plentiful. Because of this, many of the predators will find it harder to catch a meal, and their numbers will go down. As predator numbers drop, prey have an easier time of growing and reproducing, so their populations rise. In turn, this makes hunting easier for the predators, and so the cycle repeats. Though the ratio of predators to prey may vary season to season, this system of feedback keeps both populations relatively stable and prevents either population from exhausting all of the available resources.

As we begin our permaculture journeys, we are intrinsic parts of the systems we create. Any time we make a change to a system, we are disrupting it from some state of equilibrium in the hopes that we can create a new equilibrium that better provides for the needs of ourselves and the planet. These well-intended plans can easily run off the rails and become destructive, however, if we fail to take a cue from nature and apply feedback to modify our designs and adapt to reality.

The Parable of the Marshmallow Tower

The Challenge

When I was in college, I participated in a leadership workshop that asked us to build a tower out of dry spaghetti and mini-marshmallows that would be capable of holding a single full-sized marshmallow as high in the air as possible. We had thirty minutes to construct the tower, and at the end of that time the team had to take their hands off of the tower and let it sit for a minute with the big marshmallow in place. After the tower settled for a minute, the team whose marshmallow stood the highest in the air would be declared the winner.

Engineering the Perfect Solution

I was in a team that mostly consisted of engineers and business majors, so we all set about discussing the types of structure that would be the strongest. The engineers described their grand vision of a triangulated and reinforced tower, and the business majors did their best to keep everyone working together, manage our remaining time effectively, and keep our construction supplies organized. For 29 minutes we built our tower as tall and secure as we could, and when the final countdown began we gingerly placed our big marshmallow on the very peak, crossing our fingers and holding our breath that the structure would remain standing with the extra mass at its pinnacle. We took our hands off the tower and waited.

When Expectations Meet Reality

What happened over the following 60 seconds when we couldn’t touch the tower? At first, the marshmallow stood at the top, just as we had intended. Then, slowly, the weight caused the mini-marshmallow joints to sag, and the once tall tower started melting in front of us. Eventually the tower stopped sagging, and the marshmallow still stood on top, although now it was nearly half the height as when we first placed the marshmallow. Still, we felt good about our work. Other teams had watched their towers collapse completely, and we patted ourselves on the back when we realized that our tower was still the tallest in the room.

That was, until, we learned that when first graders were assigned the same task, they built towers that were, on average, several inches higher than our own. How could this be? How was it that groups of kids that had never taken a class on physics and were never instructed in engineering design were able to consistently create more effective structures than a group of twenty-year-olds who were about to graduate with Bachelor’s degrees?

An Alternative Approach

The answer was that the first graders applied feedback from the very start of their construction. Rather than scheming up some big, abstract plan for how to build the best spaghetti skyscraper, children began by placing the big marshmallow on the table in front of them. Then they started to prop up the marshmallow as high as they could. If the marshmallow started to lean to one side, they simply placed more spaghetti in the appropriate spot to support it until things stabilized. Then, when the tower was stable, they started pushing it up even higher.

The result of this method of construction was oftentimes a lopsided, crazy-looking mess, but when the final countdown ended and the kids took their hands off of their construction, it didn’t sag or go anywhere. They had already shored up any instabilities, and the weight of the big marshmallow was already incorporated into the structure. There were no surprises or breath-holding at the end, because the kids already knew how their tower would stand up under pressure.

The Importance of Feedback

This story highlights the importance of incorporating feedback early and often into the design process. The more educated we become about permaculture design patterns and sustainable techniques for improving our lives, the more tempting it becomes to scheme up complex plans that will one day have us growing all of our own food, or living without any plastic, or going completely off-grid. These plans can be great in informing us of where we want to go and how we think we might get there, but too often we build and build towards a plan without ever checking in to make sure it works in reality.

Applying feedback is the art of identifying a goal, beginning the process of moving towards that goal, and regularly checking in to make sure that we are on track and moving in the right direction. Because feedback only occurs when the outputs of a system have the opportunity to influence the functioning of the system itself, it is critical that something tangible actually be done in real life if we are to apply this principle. No amount of armchair philosophy or daydreaming will give us the same opportunity to learn from and correct our mistakes as actually getting our hands dirty and making something imperfect. As long as we Observe and Reflect on how that imperfect system is working, we have the opportunity to apply feedback, and thus make the system better.

Or, as Winston Churchill said, “However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results.”

Applying Feedback in an Apartment

So what does it mean to apply feedback in your life if you’re living in an apartment and trying to live more sustainably? Well, for starters it probably means that you should start trying things out and seeing how they work in your own life. Rather than reading countless blogs and watching dozens of YouTube videos trying to learn how somebody else has achieved a picture perfect zero-waste lifestyle, pick one or two simple techniques and start applying them to your life. Then take note of how your life changes. Do you actually produce less waste after making the changes? Is your financial picture still sustainable with these new habits? Are you still eating well?

Your life is a complicated thing, and making a change in one part of your life is likely to have unanticipated consequences elsewhere, especially if you’re trying something completely new. This isn’t a problem as long as you start small, learn from your mistakes, and correct them before they become major issues. Course-correct when necessary, and avoid the temptation to become obsessed with how something is supposed to look or function. If it looks stupid but it works, it’s not stupid. Permaculture design often results in highly unique and creative systems, and I think the frequent application of feedback is a major contributor to this lovable eccentricity.

Tying It All Together

Everyone is familiar with the advice “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.” Yet all too often, we fail to recognize that this is exactly what we’re doing when we create a plan and rigidly adhere to it without regard for how the growing system is performing. If everything works out perfectly, you may achieve your goal, but in the far more likely event that something unexpected happens, you can find yourself pouring time, money, and energy into something that is doomed to failure.

Though taking incremental steps and adjusting frequently may seem like it slows down progress towards creating our final designs, the reality is that it’s far better to create a working system after 12 months than to end up with an irreparably broken system after 10 months. Just like in nature, feedback throughout our design process prevents us from creating unstable systems, and its proper application leads us to work with reality to create beautiful and productive creations that are truly permanent.