I don’t know what I’m wrong about

With all of the reading and learning that I do, there is a clear path for much of it. I find areas that are new to me, dig in, and try to learn more.

In many cases, though, my gaps aren’t readily apparent and I simply don’t know what I’m wrong about.

In her book “ I Never Thought of It That Way “, author Mónica Guzmán shares this story:

“Is it safe to assume all sixty-three of us are wrong about something right now?” David Smith asked the virtual, pandemic-era class I joined one evening. In Zoom squares on my screen, heads considered, then nodded. “I think so, because we’ve been wrong about so many things before,” he continued. But there’s a problem: we don’t know what we’re wrong about. “That simple observation, ‘I’m wrong, I just don’t know what about!’ should produce some humility,” David Smith said. “Some willingness to listen.”

Willingness to listen is certainly a big part of this, but surrounding yourself with people willing to share is equally important. If you’ve positioned yourself in a way where observations like that are shut down, people will stop sharing them with you and you’ll no longer have that opportunity to learn.

Online it’s the issue of “ unfollow me if you disagree”, but I find I gain even better insights from conversations in person. A good example from a few…