Overthinking tells us that if only we had a bit more information, we could proceed, free of doubt and with guaranteed success. But learning to embrace an element of not knowing can lead to more freedom, wonder and discovery.
Spoiler Alert! The Pleasures of Not Knowing
Sometimes we remember the pleasure of not knowing.
We avoid knowing how a film, football match or TV series ends before we’ve seen it because we want to enjoy the process of finding out. We might wrap gifts so we don’t spoil the surprise.
And sometimes we forget.
Like if we’ve read every Google review and Instagram photo before visiting a new restaurant or tourist attraction. Too much knowledge can diminish the pleasure of discovery. The experience becomes more one of confirmation: “Yes the ice cream is indeed exactly as described by @mandy3354.” “I can confirm that the view of the coastline is exactly as it was in the travel blog.”
Safety and Discovery
“Those who say ‘yes’ are rewarded with adventures. Those who say ‘no’ are rewarded with safety.”
Improv pioneer Keith Johnstone
Pleasingly, Keith Johnstone’s comment can work for “know” as well as “no.” When we seek to know in advance, we’re boxed in by what we can already conceive. Certainty limits us to what we already know.
In improv, we practice acting without a plan and responding creatively to whatever happens next. It’s what John Cleese calls “open mode”. Instead of executing steps 1 – 2 – 3 – 4, we let go of knowing in order to be open to what’s here.
In 1928 Alexander Fleming put some staphylococci bacteria out on petri dishes to grow while he was on holiday. When he returned, he noticed one of the dishes had become mouldy and the bacteria hadn’t grown. A closed response would be to see it as a failure to grow bacteria, which it was, and to have thrown it away. Instead, he said to himself “That’s funny…” Looked into it. And revolutionised medicine by discovering penicillin.
Discovery in the “Fertile Void”
“It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.”
Mark Twain
Nothing kills creativity more than premature certainty. The left hemisphere wants to categorise, shut things down, and retreat to the safety of “knowing”.
But what we think we know is often the problem.
Physicist Carlo Rovelli points out that in Copernicus’s time, it wasn’t too difficult to do the measurements to see that the earth was spinning around the sun. The hard part was to let go of the “obvious knowledge” that the Earth was the centre of the universe.
Letting go of what we think we know is often the hardest first step to discovering something new. Gestalt therapy calls it stepping into the “fertile void”. It can feel uncomfortable, but it’s in that unknown that new discoveries lie.
Neuroscience and mindfulness practice reveal that there is no separate “self” living in our heads. That feeling of “you” is like a rainbow. It appears to be a “thing” but doesn’t exist as a separate entity. But it just seems so obviously there!
Don’t Believe in Yourself
Many emotional problems come from believing we know something “They don’t like me” or “This is a disaster.” Or worrying over and over in an attempt to find certainty.
One approach often suggested is to build a stronger opposite certainty. “They love me.” “I’m sure to succeed.”
But this can feel fragile, as if we’re kidding ourselves.
A more stable approach can be to embrace not knowing. “I don’t know if they like me.” “I don’t know if this will work out.”
The Fertile Void in Entrepreneurship
The same applies to our work. “I know this new product/service/class will be popular!”
No, you don’t. You might be able to take a fair guess. But too much belief can blind you to feedback.
Equally, you don’t know that it won’t be popular either. We often hear of videos going viral or services taking off unexpectedly.
How would it be to explore “I don’t know whether this will be popular. I’ll start and then find out.”?
Not Knowing in Politics
“When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do?”
Economist John Maynard Keynes
Politicians get praised for their conviction that they know what to do. And changing their mind is seen as the worst possible sin. But in complex systems it’s often impossible to predict unintended consequences.
An initiative in India sought to reduce the levels of venomous cobras in Delhi by offering a reward for dead ones. Seems logical, right? People began handing in dead cobras and cobra numbers went down.
But what the administrators didn’t anticipate is that it became a business opportunity. People began breeding cobras in order to get paid for handing more in. The cobra population increased to higher than it was before. So the administrators stopped offering the rewards. At which point, the breeders released all their cobras, and the population went even higher. Facepalm!
What would politics look like if we supported politicians who began from a position of “We’ll implement these strategies, see what works and change our minds if necessary.”?
Not Having “Too Much of a Good Thing”
I often come back to the idea of dosage. Some salt is necessary for life. Too much gives us high blood pressure. There’s a Goldilocks sweet spot of “not too much, not too little”.
The same goes for seeking knowledge. Some knowledge is helpful. But after a certain point, pursuing more is counterproductive.
Ali Abdaal quotes an enquiry “How certain do I need to be about this to take the next step?” The sweet spot is rarely “100%.”
Explore More
- This was partly inspired by Rory Stewart’s recent BBC radio series on Ignorance, which also provided several of the examples. I think it’s available worldwide.
- There is good advice on decision-making from Ali Abdaal and Tim Ferris, and PlayConnect regular Kate Ryley sometimes runs workshops on it.
- John Cleese’s talk on Creativity is here.
- Indirectly behind a lot of this is Iain McGilchrist’s The Master and His Emissary (though it’s very long!). You might prefer my brief notes to start with.
Let me know what you discover 🙂