Maintaining Your Ignorance

“There is finally the pride of thinking oneself without teachers.

The teachers are everywhere. What is wanted is a learner. In ignorance is hope. If we had known the difficulty, we would not have learned even so little.

Rely on ignorance. It is ignorance the teachers will come to.

They are waiting, as they always have, beyond the edge of the light.”

—Wendell Berry, 1977

Ignorance is the only fit state for anyone who is committed to learning. Socrates was often asked whether he thought himself a wise man. His inevitable reply was that the only thing he know for certain was that he knew nothing. His recognition of his own limitless ignorance allowed him to spend a lifetime seeking the truth. Once you believe you know the answer, what use is there in looking further?

Our organizations and institutions today do not suffer, as many people claim, from too little knowledge; they suffer from far too much, at least in the minds of those in charge. Corporate leaders believe they know how to run their businesses, how to approach the marketplace, how to sell, how to manufacture, and how to invest the profits they make, so they have stopped questioning their assumptions on any of these issues.

It is often said that all generals fight according to the principles of the last battle, not the one they are engaged in today. I would amend this to read that they follow the actions they believe accounted for the last successful battle, for success in war is rapidly analyzed and its assumed lessons copied by every other general. Military commanders (and management writers) quickly inflate the specific activities of successful leaders to the status of fundamental principles of warfare (or business management). Even if the prevailing view of what lead to past success were correct (which is seldom the case, since chance is the most common cause of success or failure, and its role is rarely even acknowledged), there is nothing to say that what happened then was not a unique occurrence tied to the specific circumstances.

Only the leader who acknowledges his or her ignorance is free to consider all options, research as many possibilities as can be found, and approach every problem with an open mind, for when we know that we do not know, our minds are receptive to new ideas and unexpected insights. Minds, like windows, can admit fresh air only when they are open. The mind of someone who is sure he or she knows the answer already is tight shut against any form of mental ventilation.

Learning does not exist to replace ignorance. It is there to add to it. Once you find a possible answer to one thing you do not know, that answer will raise new questions in other areas, reducing your ignorance in one particular only to add to it in many more. That is the joy of ignorance: it is never totally removed, so it allows for learning to continue without end.

The wisest of people are those who constantly acknowledge their own ignorance. They know that they do not know, so they keep searching for greater understanding. It is those who are most proud of their current state of knowledge who are, in reality, the most ignorant among us. They not only fail to realize how much they still do not know, they stop even attempting to find out. What they do know becomes almost useless to them, encouraging rigid orthodoxy and unthinking reliance on existing ideas to cope with a constantly changing world. As the old saw says: "It ain't what you don't know that kills you, it's what you know that just ain't so".

Always acknowledge your ignorance. Never allow yourself to presume to knowledge, even the little you think you have. So long as you grasp how little real understanding you possess today, you will be prompted to go on learning with your mind wide open to every passing breeze of potential insight. The wisest people are those most acutely aware of their own ignorance, and therefore most ready to question everything around them—including whatever they imagine they might know today.

Related posts:

• Seeing in Black and White
• Speed, Simplicity, and Bad Choices
• Dangerous Assumptions
• The Lure of Quick (and Seductive) Solutions

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Adrian Savage is a writer, an Englishman, and a retired business executive, in that order. He lives in Tucson, Arizona. You can read his posts most days at Slow Leadership, the site for everyone who wants to build a civilized place to work and bring back the taste, zest and satisfaction to leadership. He also posts at The Coyote Within.

Comments

[Rosa Say]

Adrian, you are amazing. One thing I have learned since knowing you, is that I must get myself in that “mind like water” frame of mind when I sit to read the essays you write, for just one of your essays can send waves through me, not ripples. The first two thoughts which came to mind for me in reading this were these;

The critical importance of our demeanor, and how what you refer to as “ignorance” softens us, gives us the wisdom of humility, makes us more likeable and attractive to others engaging with us, and keeps us ever youthful.

Second, how today’s learning wisdom may well be about “learning filters” and our practices of discernment so we can focus well and put the Pareto principle in play. For example, should this be the current strategy with vision statements and mantras for businesses, where we mantra to filter, channeling mission-driven energies into focus amongst the information overload? But then the balance, so we keep in mind your warning to prevent “encouraging rigid orthodoxy and unthinking reliance on existing ideas.”

And this quote is nothing less than profound: “Learning does not exist to replace ignorance. It is there to add to it.” … well see now, that’s three things already!

I’ll be coming back to this Adrian.

[Greg Balanko-Dickson]

Very insightful and fastinating read. The Open Mind and the Closed Mind...

"Only the leader who acknowledges his or her ignorance is free to consider all options, research as many possibilities as can be found, and approach every problem with an open mind, for when we know that we do not know, our minds are receptive to new ideas and unexpected insights. Minds, like windows, can admit fresh air only when they are open. The mind of someone who is sure he or she knows the answer already is tight shut against any form of mental ventilation."

Mental ventalation... what a fresh concept. Thanks for opening my mind to the power of ignorance and how the Pareto principle applies to true learning.

[Karen Wallace]

Adrian, like Rosa, I found the reading of this article brought up many things for me - waves all. I too will come back to this for further absorbing (in my ignorance:).

It occured to me as I read that the willingness to admit we know nothing and to come from a state of ignorance can be more readily done if we clear excess from our minds. So many of us are suffering from information overload we dont think we have room for anything more.

If we occasionally take a scrubbing brush to the data banks of our mind and clear some space, press the delete button on all those outdated assumptions and paradigms, could we have a clearer mind? Could we be much more ready for the next stage of learning and growth - with a knowing about our ignorance and our readiness to learn?

Your analogy of throwing open the windows and admitting fresh air, reminds me of the saying - "get rid of the the cobwebs" by getting outside, taking a walk, clearing our head for whatever comes next. Being in that state of ignorance can give us a fresh energy and enthusiasm for learning and life.

It's the first week of Spring here in Australia, and I am heeding to the natural rhythms of my life by having a big clear out of my home office. Could this also be a way of staying open to learning, by clearing out all the old detritus of the past 12 months, and looking forward to new opportunities, new ideas, new ways of seeing the world, through a fresh, clean environment?

Thanks Adrian!

[tim]

Hi Adrian:

I love the insight. Ignorance truly does have its place in the journey of the lifelong learner. I often find that I'm so destination minded...that I want to find the answers. But the true joy of the journey is in realizing that there are more questions...and that there will always be more questions.

Great post,
tim

[Dan Ward]

There was an article in RogueProjectLeader.com a while back titled "Get Smarter - Become Illiterate). It was a brilliant and funny assessment of the negative impact media saturation can have on the intellect, and it resonates quite nicely with your posting.

http://www.rogueprojectleader.com/3dave.htm