Quantum Mechanics & Care Systems

Before Windy Hill Play, I studied phenomena at very small scales. I have a PhD in chemical engineering from NC State, and much of my work focused on using computation to understand how systems behave when individual interactions are too small or too complex to observe directly.

Through that work, I learned that models are only useful if you are willing to revisit them again and again. I learned that many of the tools we now rely on began as ideas that could not yet be tested. That assumptions are essential to the early development of any usable model, but that the strongest models are transparent about those assumptions and consistently examine them with a critical eye.

The best models adapt based on feedback.

Long before I entered this field, someone, somewhere proposed that everything might be made of tiny particles moving through empty space. There were no instruments to prove it. No way to measure it directly. It existed as a thought experiment. A way of reasoning about the world before the tools to observe it existed.

That idea did not immediately change anything.

It took centuries before the instruments, mathematics, and collective effort existed to turn it into something practical. It took people willing to make assumptions and brave enough to speak them into reality, knowing they might never see the proof themselves.

Many of our most consequential ideas work this way. The impact is delayed. The outcomes are often invisible to the people who begin the work.

It is likely that we will never see the full impact of our best thought experiments. But the work continues anyway.

Gandhi spent his life experimenting with truth. Even at the end of his life, he knew there were infinite experiments left to run.

Any early experiment requires assumptions. Some of those assumptions produce positive feedback. Others do not.

We assumed that commercialized care would be a sufficient substitute for parental presence during working hours. In many ways, that assumption made sense. Families needed reliable care. Work schedules demanded consistency. Systems were built to meet those needs. At the same time, we began to prioritize safety and efficiency as the primary indicators of quality. Those priorities are not wrong. They are necessary. But when they became the dominant measures in a care system, something essential was lost.

As care became more industrialized, relationships were compressed to fit schedules. Care providers were asked to manage more children with fewer resources. Families were expected to adapt to rigid structures rather than being met in the realities of their lives.

The result was a gap. Not a gap in supervision or compliance, but a gap in care itself.

Children were safe. Systems were efficient. And still, many families felt unsupported. Many caregivers felt depleted. Many children experienced care that met requirements but lacked consistency and connection. This is not a failure of intention. It is the outcome of a system designed to optimize for what could be measured, rather than for what actually sustains people over time.

What we are building at Windy Hill Play began as a thought experiment.

What would it look like to build a care system that assumes families are different, that care providers are foundational, and that all children need care, not just those who fit neatly into existing structures.

The proof of concept has required awareness of the assumptions being made along the way and a willingness to revisit feedback as it comes in, whether it is affirming or uncomfortable. We assumed growth would be straightforward. Instead, each phase has taught us important lessons. We have learned that growing too quickly risks compromising the foundation we are trying to build. We assumed we would clearly understand our roles and responsibilities as we built the program. That was false. We have needed regular guidance and support to see not only the gaps in our understanding, but the gaps in our operations.

We are still testing. Still learning. Still adjusting.

We know that care systems do not change all at once. At the same time, we are overwhelmed by the number of families seeking out our care model. So we keep showing up together, believing that a thought experiment can become a sustainable operation through repeated shared action.