“I, wisdom, dwell in counsel, and I am inside learned thoughts.”
– Proverbs 8:12
As I have lived my adult life, wisdom has always been a pursuit of mine. I am, unfortunately, a woefully poor learner.
But in my few learnings, on of the most important, a great cornerstone of my learning, was the posture of ignorance. It’s probably the most simple step to learning that you can take.
This isn’t a literal form of posture, the way that you would sit or stand, but rather, a position of the mind. And like many physical postures, you will move in and out of this one, and sometimes you have to straighten yourself out when you notice your slumping a bit.
To put yourself into the posture of ignorance, you have to do a very difficult, but very simple thing. Assume your own incorrectness. Assume that you might be wrong, or not know what you’re talking about.
This serves a two fold effect:
- I have to adopt the humility required to expand myself, and the humility to teach my point of view with kindness.
- I have to ask questions now. After all, if I don’t know something I thought I did, what else might I be wrong about?
In adopting this posture, you strengthen your ability to learn and grow. It’s simple, but difficult, and you will have to train and reorient yourself to it, and that’s ok. We can’t always be perfect, but trying is part of the process.
Modern Survival Arkansas 