What You Don't Know and Possibilities

I am grateful for you being here, right now, sharing your time with me.  Thank You!

Recently, I've realized that there are so many good TED Talks out there. If you haven't ever checked them out, I'd highly recommend.  (https://www.ted.com/talks/browse) 


I watched one recently about Which Country Does the Most Good for the World and was surprised by the list.  Many of the Ted Talks I've watched, surprise me.

Each TED Talk offers possibilities of looking in a new way at our approach to life and at how we think and act - highlighting the positive aspects of a global view and the interconnectedness we all share.

According to Peter Drucker, quoted in 2012, “The fastest growing field of modern mathematics is the theory of complexity. It shows, with rigorous mathematical proof, that complex systems do not allow prediction; they are controlled by factors that are not statistically significant. This has become known as the ‘butterfly effect’: a whimsical but mathematically rigorous (and experimentally proven) theorem shows that a butterfly flapping its wings in the Amazon rain forest can and sometimes does control the weather in Chicago a few weeks or months later."

Why should you care?

One of my favorite take-aways from a recent course I took called, Landmark Forum  was thinking about the vastness of what there actually is 'to know'.  

We can pretty easily wrap our brains around 'What I Know'.  ie. I know the English alphabet, how to read,  how to do research, how to make oatmeal, where to find good pizza etc.

We even have a good sense of 'What I don't know' and I realize that I don't know it.  Such as, I don't know Chinese, and I know I don't know Chinese.  I don't know how to fly a plane and know that I don't know how to fly.

Yet, what we know and what we know we don't know are so small compared to all that we don't even know that we don't know.    Yes - I realize that when I write this it looks like a typo, but it really isn't.  

To make it simpler for myself, I like to refer to the 'what we don't know that we don't know' as simply the unknown.  And there,  in the unknown, lie the greatest possibilities. 

Just think about the iphone first being released in 2007, and today add a slew of smart phones, tablets, communication through Skype and googlechats or imessages.  Airplanes did not allow, nor did they even envision the possibility of passengers connecting to internet in the air just a few years ago.  Who knows what tomorrow will bring?

As I am writing this I began thinking of my grandbaby and her reactions to wind and her new surroundings and the two dogs in her household, and so many people coming and going - all new, all unknown, every day for the most part.  

Embracing the future with the enthusiasm and sense of adventure that we all once knew as children, exploring everything in the world from the perspective of 'unknown'. 

Amazing, isn't it?  As children, we had no fear of the unknown.  

And from adults......... what I hear most often as the reason for not moving forward or not changing a less than desirable situation or pursuing something new - Fear of the unknown.  

We've all heard the phrase, 'the devil I know, vs the devil I don't know' - what's most interesting is that as adults we most naturally assume it's a "devil" on both sides of the statement.  So many possibilities that may never unfold due to fear of the unknown.

Thoughts, comments - what do you think?


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