Embrace the chaos: Nietzsche and choosing a university

Ever read any Nietzsche? Nope? Me neither! But I have read a little bit about Nietzsche, and one of his ideas particularly resonated with me when it comes to choosing a university.

The quote that caught my eye was this:

“You must still have chaos in you to be able to give birth to a dancing star”.

In case you are wondering, Friedrich Nietzsche was a German philosopher who lived and worked in the latter half of the 19th century, and whose work has profoundly impacted contemporary philosophy. The quote comes from Thus Spake Zarathustra.

But, more importantly, what does he mean?

Well, essentially, he is making a critique of humans relying overly on systems of order. By adhering slavishly to rules and regulations, we stifle our ability to create new things and improve. Instead, in order to give birth to a dancing star (Nietzsche loved his music and dancing!), he says we need to embrace the chaos!

So how does this relate to the decisions you are about to take regarding your university choices? 

Well, when it comes to the big decisions, most of us look for order; we want to find some kind of logic for making our decisions. We look for reassurance in a system, whether it be the simple act of writing down a list of pros and cons, or finding information like league tables to help us compare one choice with another.

The ‘order’ we seek might be the specific entry grades that the university sets that we know we have to meet. It could be a specific certificate that we will get, which means we can enter a specific profession. We are, after all, looking for certainty that the studies we choose will be recognised and will help us in our career. We are looking for certainty that if we do X, then we will get Y.

But of course, the reality is that amongst this order, there will be some chaos. There is no cast iron system for making the ‘right’ decision about our future, or choosing the ‘best’ university. Life, and in particular your future, is unpredictable.

This ‘chaos’ sometimes comes about because you don’t know with any certainty what you want to do, or even if you do, you don’t know how to get there. You might not know whether you’ll get the grades a university is asking for, and even if you do, whether it will really be enough. You’ll have interviews where you don’t know the questions, or even if you did, you know that you couldn’t be sure of the right answers.

Chaos is not knowing how you will feel when you get to your chosen university, or perhaps when you get to a new country. And you certainly don’t know how you will feel once you leave, your education ‘complete’. After all, no matter how much information you read about a university and a course, you can never really know how you will get on, and how it will help you with your specific future.

But for Nietzsche, chaos can also be far more aspirational. It can be the hope you feel when you are about to visit a new place. It might sound crazy, but without uncertainty there can be no ‘hope’; after all, if we all had certainty all the time, there would be no need for hope. Similarly, chaos can be the thrill of trying something for the first time, whether it be jumping out of a plane, or trying a new flavour of ice-cream. Without chaos and uncertainty, there can be no such thrill. Without chaos, there really can’t be that feeling of excitement and anticipation about going to university.

In learning, chaos probably works best if it has some basis in order:

• ‘Order’ is all the things you already know, all the skills you already have. Faced with a challenge based on this knowledge, you’ll fly, comfortable in the application of everything within your skill set. There are few things more satisfying than nailing an exam because you knew your stuff!

• ‘Chaos’, on the other hand, represents all the things you don’t know, or to put it a more exciting way, all the things you still have to learn. It means all the opportunities you have to increase your knowledge, broaden your skills, and become a better, more complete, more productive person. There are few things more satisfying than completing an assignment or a project that you thought you could never do, but working hard, you find that you can achieve the impossible.

So think of it this way, in your life you will probably spend a lot of time trying to create order. You’ll build plans, and structures that make logical sense in order to make good decisions. You’ll learn from your teachers, from books and from everyone who has gone before. You’ll practice techniques and skills, and apply them in familiar situations, safe in the knowledge that if you do X, then Y will follow.

And then chaos will come along and throw it all back into uncertainty.

With your university choices, you’ll follow the processes that your school gives you, you’ll follow the advice of parents, teachers and friends, and you’ll go hunting for some good objective information upon which you’ll make your decisions. But chaos will come, perhaps in the form of unexpected exam results, perhaps an unexpected decision from a university, or perhaps you yourself will react unexpectedly to something you thought you were sure about, and you will (dare I say it) change your mind!

So how do you handle this chaos? Well, the best decisions you can take are those that will prepare you for the unexpected. Plan for the best, prepare for the worst!

But most importantly, embrace the chaos! Uncertainty, hope, optimism and aspiration can be some of the most exciting drivers in your life!

What next?

If you enjoyed this article, why not have a look at: Ikigai. Something we can learn from Japanese philosophy?

If you found this all a bit esoteric, I also write about the practical stuff, so do keep exploring the site for simple, down-to-earth advice on how to make great choices and a great university application!