I am a knowledge hoarder. When I was 19 years old I bought an e-reader. The first book I read was Aldous Huxleys doors of perception.
I couldn’t understand much of it but It made me feel smart. Grasping the universe with my mind – like Stephen Hawking – but without the cool voice.
After reading a hand full of these difficult – brain-gasmic – books I realized I didn’t remember much of it. Which was not due to an over consumption of intoxicant like every 19 year old would. No, I read too much and too difficult books. I did this to superficially boost my sense of self worth by telling myself how smart I was.
The problem was that It felt like a massive waste of time reading all these books. But I wanted to read them because I had a hunger for knowledge. I wanted to learn everything. Okay, maybe not everything, like the fact that mitochondria are the powerhouse of the cell.
So I started taking notes of every book I read. Now 10 years later I have over 100 book summaries.
I am a knowledge hoarder.
And I don’t think it’s a problem. I also don’t think it’s a benefit.
It is ONLY knowledge.
It is not experience. It is all mental masturbation. I read the book. Felt good because I thought I learned something. But never ACTED on it.
So, Read what you Need!
I was the kid in class that would know all the answers, but when it came time to work on a project I would freeze.
It dawned on me that there is a massive difference between knowing and understanding. Because..
Understanding = knowledge x experience.
So keep reading if you find yourself stuck in your mind instead of taking action. Like a race car spinning his wheels at the starting line, consuming but not moving.
One framework that has helped me with this is the king, warrior magician lover framework.
Imagine a triangle, where each point stands for a force inside you. One being the head. the other the hands and the last one being the heart. The magician, the warrior and the lover.
Only when you have your head, hands and heart in balance can you become a true king or queen and build a kingdom.
About 3 years ago I drew this triangle and put a dot where I think most of my power lied. It was Very much magician and lover centered. Head and heart.
I started my mission of becoming more of a warrior.
And as any good magician would do, I started reading up on how to get more done, how to DO things.
Which is NOT how to do things.
That’s mental masturbation, again.
I knew I had to gain more understanding, not more knowledge.
What helped the most was starting a freelance career. After this I worked a challenging full time job as a consultant.
I found myself more capable of doing things.
I trained myself not to think, so I could move swiftly and with ease.
But Again I found myself out of balance. I had power in my head and hands. I was great at thinking and doing.
But I felt little or no love.
Re-finding this balance is the next step of my journey. That’s why I quit the full time job and started building my own business again. If you need help with staying focused, check this link.
Answer this question to yourself, Where does most of your power lie? Is it your head, hands or heart? Do you think a lot, act a lot or feel a lot?
And what do you need to do to become more in balance? To become a king or queen?
Draw up a triangle and put the dot of where you are now. Add an arrow of where you need to go.
Do you know what’s even more important than having knowledge? Knowing that you don’t know. Like our O.G. philosopher Socrates.
A bit more than a week ago I moved to a new place.
While I was biking around the new village looking for a hardware store, I realized I took a de-tour.
My first instinct was to blame myself.
- “Why didn’t you check google maps more often?”
- “Why didn’t you figure out the right way beforehand?”
- “You are so inefficient, there is a better way!”
I realized the silliness of the situation.
Why did I expect that I was able to do thing the right way, the first time I try it?
That’s a silly idea.
It is unreasonable to get angry at yourself for doing something wrong the first time you try it.
It is part of the process.
We are constantly discovering new territory in life. This can be in business, relationships, personal development, discovering a new village or taking care of a cat that just got kittens, like I did last night.
Of course you don’t know the way! And that’s exactly how it’s supposed to be!
Embrace not knowing and being lost.
This is part of the process of transformation. it is not a failure, it is a feature.
Nature has been lost for 3.8 billion years. It does not know where it is going.
Neither do we.
Nature can’t think 2 steps ahead. That’s why it has never invented the wheel. This can be a strength or a weakness. How often do you get overwhelmed because you are thinking more than one step ahead?
Do you automatically make an image in your mind of what things will be like? Is that blocking you when you are trying to be creative?
This is a bad design process.
In product design we call this “Jumping to conclusions”.
You don’t discover what’s possible but just go with your first idea.
I struggle with this as well.
If ford asked people what they wanted they said a faster horse, not a car. Getting to the idea of the car is only possible when you embrace not knowing.
Because I have the tendency to jump to conclusions I created this framework. It helps me navigate new terrains and get to the best result:
F.L.O.W. – Fascinate, Learn, Outline, Work.
Let me explain.
This works for any creative job, like writing, painting, and in this case webdesign. Because I’m a freelance webdesigner. Let me know if you need a website!
I would normally start with Fascinate. Here I get obsessed with one idea I hold in my mind. Like being certain that building a doubledecker couch is the best invention ever. Or crocks.
After this I would jump right to Work and build the idea. I would find out later that all the work was for nothing. Why?
Because I was so arrogant to think that my firs idea was the best.
Now We just have the F and the W. Two important steps are missing: Learn and Outline.
After you get hit by inspiration and you get fascinated by a vision for
- a website
- a well written article
- your poodle’s new haircut
- a wooden DIY chair
You start Learning.
Embrace that you don’t know what’s best!
Decide to pick around 3-5 examples within 30 minutes, and put them in your scrap book. Take more time for bigger projects. The time limit is important because if you don’t set a limit on your learning stage, you will get lost in a rabbit hole.
After you found 5 examples you start the third stage:
Outline. Here you mix and match different elements that you like, and draw up a concept, like I did over here.
Then at last, you start Working, you build your concept out in reality. As you can see here. This framework helps me structure my creative work and get into the flow.
Embrace not knowing.
Not knowing is a great strength.
It is not a weakness.
When you understand that you don’t know, the world opens up.
And once you know. Know that this knowledge is mental masturbation unless you act on it.
Understanding = Knowledge x Experience.
Thank you for reading! Remember to draw the king, warrior, magician, lover triangle and point out where you are. And use the F.L.O.W. Model.
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