🤯Unknown Unknowns #36 - Blindspots
What causes unknown unknowns? Most of the time it's us thinking we know something better than we do. It's our inability to admit to ourselves that we don't know as much as we think we do. The only way to get around this is by being open minded.
This Week:
Writing:
If you don't know how hard something is, you don't know how risky it is.
I wrote a tweet thread on Tiers of Craziness - how achievements that seem crazy are just because you have no experience with the activity. I thought of this because of Alex Honnold. He free-soloed El Capitan (He climbed 3,000 feet without any ropes), an accomplishment that almost every person who hears about it thinks is crazy. But there's a quote of his that I can't find, that goes something like, "People don't know how much I trained for it. If I had any thought that I couldn't do it, I wouldn't have done it."
There's a difference between perceived risk and actual risk. Alex Honnold has been climbing since he was a child. He's been free-soloing for years. He worked on this specific feat for years, spending literal months on the crag. He knew every hold, practiced every move until it was second nature. Free soloing El Cap wasn't something crazy for him, it was pushing the limits. But everyone who has no experience thinks that it's an impossible task. The proper combination of preparation and skill lowers the actual risk, even if the perceived risk remains high.
Discoveries:
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Stew Fortier wrote a great twitter thread on Bill Grundfest, the owner of the Comedy Cellar. Bill had a knack of spotting what made comics great and getting them to focus on that skill. He saw their blind spots and got them to realize their "signature move".
=> Article Here
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Blindspots aren't just about you, everyone has them. You could be in someone else's blindspot. How do you get out of someone else's blindspot? Increase you luck surface area.
Doing great work is only half the job. If you want to increase your chances of success (your luck), you need to tell people about your work as well. This is something I’ve learned the hard way.
=> Article Here
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Here's a tweet that has no connection to anything but I found hilarious and I want to share:
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Have a great week,
Chris