I tried looking the word up in the dictionary and got: “a jitterbug dance originating in Harlem”

Ahem. What?

Sorry, no jitterbug here.

And can we talk about the irony that the dictionary definition is a super trendy generational dance move?

That’s basically the opposite of what we are going for. When we think of lindy, it is more in this framing: “If you hear advice from a grandmother or elders, odds are that it works at ninety percent. On the other hand…if you read anything by psychologists and behavioral scientists, odds are it works at less than ten percent, unless it is also what has been covered by the grandmother and the classics…” (Nassim Teleb).

It’s the “Lindy Effect” — the idea that if something has continued/has been used/is successful for a long time before, it will continue to be for a long time in the future.

So what does that have to do with family life? Friendships? Our part in society?

Well, as we are trying to build our lives well, we hear a lot of studies and opinions shouting at us, “DO IT LIKE THIS!” How do we sort which of this contradictory advice to adhere to and which to toss? I mean, the decisions we make about family structure, health, city design, childrearing, etc., etc. are far reaching and nearly irreversible. Talk about pressure.

But, we have a lot of the answers!** For thousands of years people have been trying to live life well and, according to the Lindy Effect, the strategies of our ancestors have already been sifted to see what will and won’t hold up. The principles that have already proven to be successful across generations, nationalities, and specific situations are the principles that will probably still be successful in the future.

Timelessness.

Are we making this parenting decision/architecture decision/decorating decision/food decision based on the timeless experience that is humanity or based on an unproven trend?

Those are the kinds of questions we are trying to ask around here.

**We can’t go without saying that the ultimate proof of the Lindy Effect are the truths of God’s Word, the Bible. As the Designer of the universe, the truths that God encoded in are unchangeable and the final answers to these questions. Every person and society since the beginning of time has proven that, and at the end of time we will realize just how much. Until then, the Bible is our ultimate answer to the question about living life well. We look to the Lindy Effect just to fill in some of the specific how to’s (like what to eat or how many hours to sleep), but always on the bedrock foundation of God’s design.