Last week on Friday I was doing my usual rounds on the internet. Then Seth Godin dropped his article for the day. As usual, I devoured it.
It has been said that with the invention of social media, and the internet at large, everyone who has a smartphone and an internet connection has the freedom to stand on their soapbox and tell the world anything and everything they wish. Just because people have a platform to speak, it does not make them experts at the topic they address.
In my opinion. the best approach to use in life, is curiosity.
Get off your soapbox every once in a while. Don’t be blinded by your expertise and your experience. Be flexible with your strong beliefs. Be open to new information. Be willing to adjust and adapt. Otherwise you lose your capacity for growth.
Here is Seth’s article that I found thought-provoking.
Read it and ponder on the closing question. You will get value out of this!
The grid of inquiry, by Seth Godin
Expertise and firmly held beliefs don’t always go together.
Here’s a simple XY grid to help us choose where to sit at whatever table we’re invited to:
Plenty of well-trained professionals have earned the right to have strongly held beliefs. These convictions save them time and error, particularly if the world is stable. Surgeons, jugglers and historians make countless decisions, and they rarely have the time or resources to reconsider each underlying factor. This makes them efficient, but can also cause a field to get stuck.
Fortunately, there are innovators. These are individuals with plenty of experience and training who have chosen to be flexible, to repeatedly ask ‘what if’ and ‘why’. When an innovator suggests a counter-intuitive or even nutty concept, it might pay to listen carefully.
For most of us, most of the time, we have the chance to be curious. We don’t have a lot of domain knowledge, but we’re able to ask intelligent questions and to listen carefully to the answers. The hallmark of a curious person with goodwill is that they’re eager to change their minds.
Alas, social media has elevated the foolish. People possessing little in the way of expertise, and generally unwilling to change their assertions or goals.
Where do you sit?
Happy new week!
P.S. If you have been enjoying the Mental Wealth Newsletter, subscribe below and I’ll send it directly to your inbox, so that you never miss out!
If this has been insightful to you, share it with a friend. It shows them that you care.
Author: Jennifer Kyalo
First published in Mental Wealth Newsletter
Safe Space Arena 
Leave a comment