How to Live With Two Conflicting Ideas?
A deep dive into the primary quality of creative thinkers.
In 1936, Scott Fitzgerald wrote,
“The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function.”
Sixty-Six years later,
In 2002, Elon Musk, future Space-X founder, went to Russia to procure 3 ICBMs(Missile) for $21 million. He expected a deal. To his surprise, now they wanted $63 million and insulted him.
They said, “Oh, little boy, you don’t have the money?”
However, he didn’t quit the project. In his own words,” Whoa, there’s got to be a better way to solve this rocket problem. ”
Elon calculated that the raw materials for building a rocket actually were only 3 percent of the sales price of a rocket at the time. Rather than shopping for the finished rockets, he created his own rockets. Within few years, he cut the price of launching a rocket by nearly 10x. And the rest is history.
You might ask now, “What is the relationship between the quote and Elon’s story?”
Both revolve around the ability to handle two contradictory viewpoints in the mind at the same time.
In the rest of the blog, We’ll dig deeper into this ability and why it’s important to handle people and problems.
The objective of this blog is threefold.
1) To understand why our brain is unable to handle uncertainty.
2) To understand the primary quality which separates us from the creative types of any profession.
3) How to apply the strategy in our life.
1. Know Yourself
“ Know Thyself” — Ancient Greek aphorism
In the ancient greek world, Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom. Here in the scope of the topic, “know thyself” is knowing how our brain is wired to handle the unknown.
There are two key things to know.
First, humans are by nature, insecure creatures. We fear the unfamiliar or unknown. Until 12,000 years ago, every human practiced hunting-gathering.
“Today we stand with the brains of hunter-gatherers in our heads.”- Richard Leakey
Due to the evolutionary pressures, we’re hardwired to give more weight to the things that could go wrong than to the things that go right. Psychologists call this “Negativity- Bias.” The brain cannot keep us safe if it doesn’t know what is coming next. So, it exaggerates threats and jumps to conclusions.
Second, as kids, we’re conditioned to see the world as black and white. We divide things into two categories: good and bad.
Brushing teeth and greeting your relative is good. A stranger who offers us chocolate is bad. As T. C. Chamberlin said,
” Childhood’s unconscious theory is that the good are good, and the bad are bad. From the good the child expects nothing but the good; from the bad, nothing but the bad. To expect a good act from the bad, or a bad act from the good is radically at variance with childhood’s mental methods.”
This mental method to oversimplify the world worked well when we were kids. Unfortunately, many adults still live with the ruling theory of their childhood.
They take people at face value — Any colleague who offers them free lunch is good. They don’t care about the intention — whether there are any strings attached with the offer.
This way of thinking leads to wrong career choices as well. They stick with the status quo. They avoid unknown at all costs.
To prevent the above mistakes, there is a hack.
This brings us to the next section…
2. Hack: Develop Negative Capability
“it struck me what quality went to form a Man of Achievement, … I mean Negative Capability, that is, when a man is capable of being in uncertainties, mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact and reason.” — John Keats
Negative capability, a term coined by John Keats, is the ability to keep two or more ideas that contradict each other, without becoming uncomfortable.
Buddhists call it “Shoshin” or “Beginners mind,” whereas Scott called it “First-rate intelligence.” Though we have different terms in use, the meaning is the same.
For example, Consider the below situations which involve two opposite ideas.
Interpretation of the Situation1
Till the 19th century, scholars were split into two groups.
One group said light is a particle whereas the other group said light is a wave. Each group believed their theory is right until Albert Einstein discovered the photoelectric effect.
Einstein concluded that light possesses the characteristics of both particle and wave.
Boom. Now, both groups changed their mind.
Interpretation of the Situation2
Similar to Einstein, Elon had two options.
- Buy rockets, despite the fact that the raw materials are only 3% of the total cost of the rocket.
- Quit the endeavor as the odds of failure are greater.
He generated an entirely new idea that is superior to both.
SpaceX was born.
(For more details, google with the search term” First Principles Thinking.” )
Truly creative people in all fields live in the middle of ideas. They attack their problems from a variety of angles as needed.
As we saw, both of these men fired their ego for time being. They had beginner minds— experienced what they were seeing, without the need to assert a judgment, for as long as possible.
This ability to withstand what looks mysterious, manage the lack of knowing something with certain is the primary quality of all creative people.
Bringing it all together
“The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.” – Steve Jobs
- Don’t take people at face value: The world is not black and white. Judge less, observe more.
- Embrace Reality: Resist the urge to make a choice in your head. Remember the light discovery example by Einstein. Cultivate a beginner’s mind.
Magicians use one hand to grab your attention while the other hand executes the trick. To cultivate a beginner's mind, watch the other hand.
Footnotes
- History of Space-X — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_SpaceX#:~:text=SpaceX%20was%20first%20headquartered%20in,months%20after%20the%20company%20started.
- Scott Fitzgerald’s essay Crackup — https://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/f-scott-fitzgerald-essay-the-crack-up/1028/
- The Method of Multiple Working Hypotheses by T.C Chamberlin — http://www.biotech.wisc.edu/docs/default-source/outreach-documents/the-method-of-multiple-working-hypotheses.pdf
- Einstein discovery — https://global.canon/en/technology/s_labo/light/001/11.html
- Photoelectric effect — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photoelectric_effect
Credits
I learned negative capability from
Greene’s speech at Google
