One of the biggest deceptions that I have faced many times, is the perception of the simplicity of new ideas and knowledge. When we hear or say that this idea is great or with this new skill that will happen, we get seduced into believing that declaring or hearing these things will make their impact certain.
We begin executing on new ideas and gaining new knowledge, thinking that there will be little effort and they quickly will have full effect . Of course, we know that this is not true. But this deception is not what makes new ideas and knowledge messy.
Discovery together with our rate of learning are two pieces that make new ideas and knowledge messy.
The rate at which we learn varies from person to person. Some can hear something once and they understand. For others, including me, need to hear something multiple times and in slightly different ways to gain understanding.
Part of the messiness, is from this different rate of learning. Learning in life has many rough edges. It is never smooth. Our inability to focus for long periods of time makes learning choppy.
Discovery, while exciting, adds exponentially to the messiness of new ideas and knowledge. To discover something, is to find something new that is unexpected. The fact that something is new and unexpected could be beneficial. It could build towards the impact that we desire when we started this journey.
More times than not, the new and unexpected (from discovery) creates doubt and introduces new context or the need for newer ideas or different knowledge. Discovery creates side roads, detours, and obstacles that degrade our chance for the impact we felt was so certain when we began our trip.
Discovery that leads to side roads, detours, and obstacles is invaluable. There is leverage in embracing discovery for it it the quickest way to gain both context and perspective. When we have context and perspective, we tend to make better choices.
But only if we are willing to re-evaluate the impact we seek and let go of the predetermined path we chose to follow, to get there, in the beginning.
Impact and positive outcomes can take many forms. The key criteria that we should seek, is to determine if a different form than we expected is pointed in the same direction as where we first wanted to go when we started.