Blueprint >> Embrace Paradox

Disclaimer: This document is in raw form as I process and distill 4 years-worth of my personal development notes. Expect some typos and cryptic language for now. I will be updating frequently and polishing up.

Prescription: Embrace paradox.
Related Concepts: Epistemology, Life-Long Learning

What is Embrace Paradox?

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Why is it Important?

The inability to deal with the complexity and mystery of life hinders your performance. An obsession with being right and having everything figured out, leads to trouble. Top performers are able to function well in uncertain environments.

If you're too obsessed with certainty, you will tend to create a bubble of false certainty around yourself. You will limit yourself by closing off your mind to other possibilities. This can be disastrous.

Embrace Paradox Videos

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Embrace Paradox: Key Points

Complete certainty is just not in the cards. Stay humble and be patient with growing your knowledge.

Be able to live with paradox, uncertainty, and simply not knowing. Life can be paradoxical, especially when you're learning something new. Successful, intelligent people are characterized by their ability to tolerate paradox. They know that they don't know everything, and that's okay. Having to know how everything fits together can become a liability. 1 Be fluid and see the larger picture — you are looking at a very small sliver of the entire universe, at a specific point in time, through a limited human psychology, controlled by emotions and susceptible to cognitive biases. What do you expect?

Self-actualized people have a healthy integration of rationality and irrationality. For them, "many dichotomies, polarities, and conflicts are fused, transcended, or resolved. Paradox and contradiction is embraced." 2

Don't try to shoehorn answers. Be honest when you don't know the answers. Don' t make them up just to satisfy yourself.

If you're triggered by certainty, the question you should be asking yourself is, Why do I need be so certain? Something has you triggered. Why can't you just relax into the uncertainty of the situation and make the best of it?

Be a nuanced thinker. Reality is too complex for black and white thinking. You must live on subtle distinctions.

References

1. Blueprint, Owen Cook
2. Towards a Psychology of Being, Abraham Maslow