Beware your senses
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“Don’t believe half of what you see, and none of what you hear.” –Lou Reed
We judge what’s around us guided by our senses. Far more often than we should, we believe what we hear, what we read and what we think.
Why? Because most of us are terrible judges.
We surrender to confirmation bias: arriving at conclusions far too quickly, holding us back from learning and from having a more accurate understanding of the world around us.
Put another way: if we’re not careful, we can wind up spending our lives telling a fictional narrative. It’s through our fictions that we do the greatest harm to ourselves and to others. But it is through the practice of nonfiction truth-telling that we get to the root of all things.
I like how Indian philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurti looks at this problem. He calls it an awakening of intelligence. And he says (https://www.amazon.com/dp/0060648341/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_U_WSVECb44TDRAA) we need to do three things better to make that happen in our lives. That includes our approach to our work as creative pros.
- Listen without distortion
The first time I heard Thelonious Monk play piano, I couldn’t understand it. All of it sounded off to my ear. But in time, it grew on me. But only after I was willing to overlook my shortsighted need to judge something as good or bad. Distortion isn’t always the barrier we believe to be. Because as musician Brian Eno once pointed out (https://twitter.com/dark_shark/status/797542797201080320?lang=en) : “whatever you now find weird, ugly, uncomfortable and nasty about a new medium will surely become its signature.”
- See in such a way that you’re merely observing.
As much as there is great wisdom in learning how to live in the moment, don’t be as eager to draw quick conclusions about what you see or think about the present. Be a little more detached from your feelings. Some achieve this through meditation or other forms of silent reflection. For me, that’s what daily walking represents: a repeatable habit that gets me out of my head, out of the office and out of my need for instant judgement of things.
- Be a better learner so that skillful action becomes possible.
Nobel Prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman was legendary for his ability to explain complicated concepts in plain language. That’s because he was devoted to being a better learner. The better you understand something, the more skillful you become at sharing it with others. James Gleick’s biography, Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0679747044/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0679747044&linkCode=as2&tag=curiositydotc-20&linkId=ZOWR5DAJUAZGTEBP) , explains how his four-step technique worked. It’s one that you can emulate in your own work. * Assign a name to the concept you want to understand better. * Explain it as though you were teaching it to someone else. * Pinpoint what feels like a struggle to explain. Go back to source material and try again. * Pare down your language to the simplest words possible, using analogies and illustrations to cover complicated ideas quickly and clearly.
So keep your judgement in check by being more skillful with your senses. Be willing to listen more openly, to see with greater detachment and be ready to teach yourself what you don’t know. This is how change happens.
Very best, Patrick
P.S. Thank you to all of you who kindly forward this email to friends. It helps me a lot. You can do so clicking either of the green buttons below. Do that now.
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