I constantly struggle with the illusion of certainty. I’ve believed in expertise for too long, but there’s no way to know everything about anything. Maybe expertise isn’t a good thing, but a fabricated sense of comfort so one no longer has to be uncomfortable with learning. Learning comes with stress as one fears failure due to one’s novice ability. I’m afraid to look bad at doing something new, so it’s easier to keep my level of expertise at what I perceive to be its highest. I’m also not good at letting things go, which is usually the case when learning something new. Knowledge is fluid. To believe one accumulates knowledge would also be an illusion. One must lose to gain.

Life comes with different terrains. What was needed for this part of the journey may not be needed for the next. If I have a “this is the way we’ve always done it” attitude, I may not reach the potential within me. If I used an ice pick to climb a mountain, what good is the pick when I need to cross an ocean? It’s always good to challenge assumptions, even though this, too, provides discomfort. I guess that’s why it’s called being a devil’s advocate. I typically don’t want to hear counterarguments to ideas that I’ve formed attachments with. The problem with assumptions is that they contain infinite possibilities in one narrowminded path.

“The most important lessons lay not in what I needed to learn, but in what I first needed to unlearn.”

– Jim Collins, Good to Great

This is why arguments and advice are worthless. There is no right answer. I can have all the data in the world, but I still may be wrong. I can argue with flawed biases and be deemed right. None of that matters.

What is more important is learning the perspectives of other people. This also means humbling myself, so I don’t think I’m the smartest person in the room. By believing in my intelligence, I only build walls to new possibilities.

Unlearning and relearning come with change. This change can also bring another layer of discomfort. I’d rather go through a process I know than stumble through something new. Change is typically resisted, but life is change. If I resist change, I will resist life’s very essence. But, like with everything, practicing something new will bring that sense of comfort… until I have to learn something new. It’s just so much more appealing to do the same thing over and over again than riding the rollercoaster of learning. Maybe instead of dreading the drop, I should enjoy the ride.

Questions and Responses