This talk will focus on Fisher’s fundamental theorem of natural selection, which says that better-adapted organisms tend to be *less* adaptable to future changes. We’ll look at some of the “odd arrangements and funny solutions” that Stephen Jay Gould finds in the natural world and wonder whether “ideal design” should even be our goal at all. Then we’ll turn inward and learn how being afraid to make mistakes and leaning too much on our experience can limit our future growth.