How to Know What You Don't Know

Eureka! Thats what I’ve been trying to figure out this whole time!  If you’re like me, and pretty much everyone else on this globe, you’ve probably experience an exciting moment when you found something out that you didn’t know you even needed to find out.  An example of this in my life was when I discovered WordPress for the first time.  As a web designer, I had been going to school to learn how to write HTML & CSS code, along with the fundamentals of design.  I went through the motions of learning all this complicated information on coding (which I can’t say I regret), when all I really wanted to do was build sites so I can publish information.  Then being introduced to WordPress, by reading an article about blogging not web design.  By then understanding that WordPress is essentially a web design engine, I soon realized how much time I had ‘wasted’ learning all that web design coding… when all I really wanted to do was publish information on the web.

Understanding the difference between what you want, and what you really want.

I thought I wanted to learn Web Design, as a young teen I thought it would be awesome to ‘create websites’.  It was of my opinion that ‘creating websites’ meant that I wanted to be a web designer.  I was wrong for two important reasons.  First, I didn’t really want to create websites, I wanted to share information with the world in the most efficient and cost effective method possible (free, online).  Secondly, designing a website isn’t the same as defining what type of content and information you want on the site.  What I really wanted to be was a ‘publisher’, someone who produces things online for the world to see, but my personal definition of a publisher was too narrow.  I didn’t know, what I didn’t know.

How to find out what you don’t know you don’t know.

According to 1940′s psychologist Abraham Maslow there are four stages to learning, the first being Unconscious Incompetence, or in other words “The individual neither understands nor knows how to do something, nor recognizes the deficit, nor has a desire to address it.” Its literally the state of having know idea that you don’t know something that may be able to really benefit your current situation.  Its like not having any concept of a car or bike and walking everywhere even though they exist, if you’ve never seen one you’d probably never realize you we’re lacking in a mode of transportation.  To find out that there are such things as ‘cars’ you’d need to be introduced to them, by either researching or someone telling you.  Its the same with any existing concept, you can either be told about it or find out about it through research.

What you don’t know CAN hurt you.

Being curious about web design is what lead me to WordPress, and WordPress introduced me to a web design method which is as different in efficiency as walking is to driving a car.  I spent a lot of ‘wasted’ time learning a lot of things about coding that I don’t really use that much now that I have WordPress, and likewise with many area’s in our lives both personal and professional we are wasting a lot of time learning inefficient ways of doing things.  I put wasted in quotes because it’s this goal to learn that lead me to finding a better solution anyways, so its never really a waste of time to learn anything.  That being said, time is finite, so the more of it you can put towards efficient and effective methods of doing things, the better that time will have served you.

Practical Application

What can knowing that there are things you don’t know (that can explode your productivity and massively improve your success rate) do for you?  Understanding this simple truth can lead you to approach problems with a more ‘child like’ appreciation.  Instead of thinking you know exactly the best way to do something already, assume that you don’t know the best way.  Ask people how they would do it, ask everyone you know- find people who are experts and ask them simple seemingly obvious questions.  Read everything you can find on the subject, reading things related to it that may be able to expand your prospective.  Try and apply knowledge you have of other processes (maybe even cooking!) to the one your trying to learn.  Most importantly, once you’ve come to a conclusion about something, remain open minded that you may be completely wrong, and if you are, don’t be afraid to change.

Up Next… Us Your Imagination.

What if you’re a pioneer in your field?  Maybe you’ve written a book on the subject and are considered to know just about everything there is to know about it.  At this point it comes as second nature, and may be as simple as riding a bike.  How can you find out what it is you don’t know about the subject?  Its as simple as using your imagination.

We’re not talking about fantasy or day dreaming, but truly utilizing the amazing tool in your brain we’ve pegged as imagination.  You may need to strip away your definition of imagination as being a child’s play thing, and understand that it is one of the most powerful processes in our universe.  It has the power to create anything, develop any concept, expand any subject, but many of us shrug it off as something that only ‘creative’ people use.  We all need to use it to solve problems and learn things, you may be using it right now to help you imagine what you could do with it!

My next writeup will be on how to use your imagination to expand your understanding of a subject or skill beyond anything you could ever, well, imagine.

So How About YOU?

What’s something you thought you completely understood and thought you were doing correctly, only to find you we’re mistaken and wasted a lot of time?