Hello Questioners,
Hope you are having a disruptive week asking all sorts of dumb, penetrating questions.
At the end of class on Monday, Hal mentioned a great article on the benefits of questioning called Disturb Me! by Meg Wheatley. Please read it. It's eye opening...
http://www.margaretwheatley.com/articles/pleasedisturb.html
Have a great weekend!
Julie
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3 comments:
An interesting thought (Have No Expectations!) which talks candidly talks about the need to embrace new, seemingly uncertain, ways in our day-to day life. One point which struck me was the confidence of Wheatley to advocate the notion that it is possible to prepare for the future without knowing what it will be. She has the faith and conviction that people together, create pathways and open doors of opportunity; and I do want to agree with her. Her appeal to create disturbances is an extension of the discussion we had in the last class – asking Dumb Questions. I surely have rocked the boat and no clue of what the answers will be. But as she quotes in the article ‘From our new thoughts and our new companions, we would all become wiser.’ I feel confident of finding my treasure in the “CASTLE” and the deep ravine is just about to end!
As John Allen rightly said “Uncertainty is the only certainty there is, and knowing how to live with insecurity is the only security.”
Cheers
Ruchi.
Julie,
Thanks for sharing this article! Back when I was studying for my Ph.D., I conjectured that (having nothing to do with my study though) if there is freedom of will, then it must be rooted from quantum uncertainties, because Newtonian physics dictate that everything is predictable. Mrs. Wheatley has shown us that uncertainties as well as creativity can arise at all levels.
However, at times I still feel that not every word in her article should be taken literally. For example, she said "If we expect life to change, we have an easier time of letting go." It applies perfectly when our lives are stagnant and we need some push. But what if a whole society is on the decline, are we supposed to just let go? In my opinion, although we may not be able to stop such a decline, we should at least try it (and it doesn't mean sticking to the old ways), and if it still doesn't work, we can let go of our expectations. I think "letting go" should be coupled with compassion, part of our Essence, because otherwise it would become "just stand back and do nothing."
During the weekend I was reading my alumni magazine, on an article of why Americans don't believe in Global Warming. It found that such topics has become tied with political parties, and those who don't believe in Global Warming almost treated their opinion as a religious belief. Furthermore, (alumni) reader feedback from a similar article a month back indicated there are still lots of people who don't believe it, and they might be eloquent in providing lots of references, but for the technical part that I can understand, their argument is more like the lines of "How could it be? I don't think it's possible...", rather than "It is not possible because the calculations show otherwise ..."
Anyway, it seems that at a trouble time like today, certain topics can be so sensitive that it is difficult to bring together a harmonious discussion from people with different points of view. The only solution I think would work is to analyze the situation objectively (i.e., using VOI), and it may well require lots of calculation and lots of certainty. Therefore, I think we should all embrace uncertainty, but when it comes to clarify things, we may still need our science and techniques, our analysis skills to be certain of our positions. The only difference (from the old way of certainty) is that we don't pre-judge which position is right or wrong.
-Wenyu
I enjoyed this article quite a bit. Often in efforts of diversity and inclusion we are taught to look for commonalities, but I like the idea that we learn much more through discovering our differences.
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