Accidental Success? I think not!
Why do the people who “don’t know their a** from a hole in the ground” always come up with the best, and often, most profitable, ideas?
In his book Presentation Zen
“In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, in the expert’s mind there are few.”
I have found that the most creative (although not always the most applicable) solutions will come from those that have the least exposure to the issues surrounding a problem. We, collectively, have a multitude of euphemisms for this unconventional approach to problem resolution: “thinking outside the box”, “beginner’s luck”, and “cheating” to name a few.
In his paper JOKES and the Logic of the Cognitive Unconscious, Marvin Minsky wrote:
Productive thinking depends on knowing how to use Analogy and Metaphor. But analogies are often false, and metaphors misleading. So the “cognitive unconscious” must suppress inappropriate comparisons.
Minsky was referring to how the mind handles humorous nonsense, suppressing ideas considered bad. but in truth, I believe that much of the way we can think (being in the box) must be attributed to the way we don’t think; And the way we don’t think can be partially attributed to what we’ve learned is “wrong” and are suppressing. Minsky believes that a mind builds “censors” that inhibit thoughts considered negative or destructive — and these censors can be built from experience (ouch, that burns!) or from being told something (don’t touch that, it’ll burn you!)
As so called experts in our field, how often have we suppressed the ideas of those not in the know? Do we exclude new ways of thinking, because they compete with our common knowledge?
I’m not a cognitive scientist, nor am I a behavioral psychologist — but I have led very inexperienced people. Inexperienced folks (AKA a “newbie”) have a lack of knowledge about the problem at hand, and are more likely to explore around the issue, often discovering alternative ways to accomplish some task. The experienced advisor will often discard a newbie’s recommendation as trivial or nonsensical, thus creating a new “censor” for the newbie to apply as reasoning later on in life.
What if… that same newbie has at his disposal the resources necessary to experiment and play — but is lacking the one key ingredient, a reference group that says “no”? Or, Perhaps, there is an overriding distrust that says “I don’t believe you, when you tell me no.” Consider the following, which have been lifted from Famous Quotes:
“The concept is interesting and well-formed, but in order to earn better than a ‘C’, the idea must be feasible.” – A Yale University management professor in response to Fred Smith’s paper proposing reliable overnight delivery service. Smith went on to found FedEx.
“If I had thought about it, I wouldn’t have done the experiment. The literature was full of examples that said you can’t do this.” – Spencer Silver, on the work that led to the unique adhesives on 3–M Post–It notepads
“Heavier than air flying machines are impossible.” – Lord Kelvin, President, Royal Society, 1895
From improvisation to outright inventiveness, we see newbies in all fields of study doing miraculous things!
Newbies don’t have Fear, Uncertainty, & Doubt (FUD) to overcome, instead they have the time, the energy and the motivation. The creative inhibitors we share are reduced to mere stumbling blocks — because the newbies don’t understand the scope behind the effort to overcome those perceived barriers to entry.
Remember this when you’re talking to someone with a big idea! You may be talking to the next Henry Ford, who was “…looking for a lot of men who have an infinite capacity to not know what can’t be done. ”
A little encouragement can go a long way and maybe that up and coming billionaire will remember you were willing to listen!
