Don't know; it's a good start.
Don't know; it's a good start.
There's a freedom in not knowing, embrace the tension and let the exploration begin.
“A good start is more than half the race I think and our starting-point or principle once found clears up a number of our difficulties.” — Aristotle
I love this quote. As a many times startup founder, it reminds me how essential it is to be comfortable with doubt. As a serial creator and founder, doubt breeds discomfort; not just any discomfort, but the type of discomfort that grips you by the face, heart and stomach and shakes to to the very core. Our brains are hard-wired for efficiency; instinct rushes to resolve tension by grasping for first level solutions.
But real the nuggets of wisdom come from sitting patiently amidst the tension that begs for speed. Great discoveries emerge from the darkened caves of uncertainty. To find the light, we must first walk into the shadows.
As children, our schooling ingrained fixed thinking — the blind pursuit of static knowledge and rigid conclusions. This inflexible industrial-era education overvalued (and still overvalues) the correct answer, eschewing creative exploration. But real wisdom takes years of experience and exploration to find rich insights and deep truths. A lifetime of not-knowing, a lifetime of exploration and a lifetime of facing the darkest parts of ourselves is what seasons our Becoming.
So where do we look for answers? The greatest innovators didn’t find truth in best-selling textbooks. They explored the unfamiliar pathways and returned with fire to light our way. The explorer’s calloused feet trod onward through doubt’s sharp shards of smashed glass. As they collapse into failure after failure, they mustered the energy and keep going, even if it means again crawling before they walk, their scraped knees revealing nuance and insight that textbooks can’t teach. They tamed fire, water, earth and air and funnelled this into control into materials that shaped our tools which in turn have shaped us.
Insatiable curiosity propels our species toward understanding. But curiosity requires humility, recognising how little we know. It means embracing beginner’s mind, a childlike openness and radical unlearning. As the Zen teaching states,
“In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s there are few.”
So how to rediscover this innocent unknowing, free of agenda and assumption? Start by turning off that phone. Let the notifications fade into silence. As the screen powers down, look at that screen and gaze at your reflection looking back. Breathe in, breathe out. Let it all go.
As you look into that smart handheld mirror, know that this face is a fractal of the divine - it has never existed before and never will again. Your life is a mystery waiting to be explored, not consumed through others’ 15-second highlight reels. Who are you behind the masks and mirrors? A history book filled with blank pages waiting to be written.
We share 99% of our DNA with chimps, but within the 1% unique to you resides endless possibility. While the world urges uniformity, your soul flickers with creative fire. You contain multitudes. A one-in-eight-billion permutation of the divine equation, never to repeat.
As creators, designers, technologists, as thinkers, collaborators, doers and makers, we are compelled to explore new territory, to go beyond the first layer of thought, that layer which contains the obvious, hardened with familiarity.
The true creative goes out and seeks a new truth, as the former truth is replaced with new materials, technologies, applications and our ability to summon our God-like powers to create and destroy.
It’s the true creative, the Creator manifest as you, who embarks on the unknown and seeks to find answers through conversation, observation, stillness, experimentation, failing forward, pivoting, testing, failing again, only to get up and repeat the process until the real truth emerges again, wrapped in a coat whose seams are sewn with threads of impermanence.
The world seeks to shape you through coercion, seduction and quick drying fixes. But you came here not to belong, but to unbelong. To rediscover your unknowing. The world seduces with false promise of uniformity, drip-feeding distraction as the thief of attention steadily chips away at your desire to play, to explore and to sit in the space of creative tension. But you feel the magnetic pull to bold self-expression. Your mind constantly creates, juggernauts against the well-trodden path. Your heart feels deeper than surface levels. Your spirit seeks meaning while the world offers comfort.
It’s easier to trim your edges, quiet your questions, bend your shape. But you’d lose your divine spark entirely.
“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson
So breathe in and breathe out. Let go of what you think you know. The miracles are right in front of you if you open your beginner’s eyes to see them. The fractals of the divine dance everywhere when we allow uncertainty to unlock understanding. The life-giving oxygen of not-knowing fills our soul when we open the windows to mystery.
Curiosity lights our way, humility fuels our Becoming, compassion connects our humanity. Not-knowing can only nourish our wisdom and knowingness.
Innovation waits to be discovered in each moment we greet with innocent presence. So walk on with beginner’s mind into the fertile valleys of the unknown. Send roots deep into darkness to blossom in the light. The vines of experience climb ever upward.
Our treasured truths are emerge from within as we navigate and learn the world around us. Our power comes from the inside and radiates outwards. As the moon reflects the sun’s glow, inner radiance awaits discovery. So take the first steps on the journey without expectation. Progress flows from exploration. We arrive where we need to be. Faith grows through each lesson learned.
Breathe in, breathe out. Begin again from not-knowing. The miracle is you.
As we seek solutions to humanity’s complex challenges, a thoughtful design process is vital. Academia’s rigid structures often fail to prepare us for the future. Real wisdom is found through courageous exploration, not static knowledge.
Rather than rushing to solutions, we must sit patiently with uncertainty. Rapid prototyping and iteration cultivate progress, and celebrate the concept of failing fast. By embracing beginner’s mindset and short-form learning, we remain open to creative possibilities.
“In times of change, learners inherit the earth, while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists.” — Eric Hoffer
The world needs more perceptive researchers to excavate insights, innovative designers to blueprint experiences, intrepid entrepreneurs to manifest ideas. Like da Vinci, we must merge arts and sciences, logic and intuition.
Success flows from valuing empathy, imagination and purpose. By scratching our own itches through designs that serve real needs, we can create ripples of positive impact. Start small but dream big.
Progress emerges from courageously charting unknown waters both inward and outward. Each lesson learned expands our understanding of self and humanity. We must have faith to take the first steps into darkness and humility to admit when we stray off course.
The answers we seek are seeded in our collaborative efforts to till the soil and nourish growth. What incredible new fruits will we discover through compassionate creativity? The future waits to be discovered and designed.
So breathe deep and dive in without expectation. Advance with vision but release attachment to specific outcomes. Setbacks hold teachings, failures plant wisdom’s roots.
We each play a part in this shared human journey. Our solutions emerge step-by-step when we walk together with wonder.
Meet me at Faster Zebra, where we’re going to alt-shift-create reality and improve life for people and the planet.
Shall we?
Yes we shall...