The Art of Being Baffled
In a world that craves certainty, being baffled is vastly underrated.
Our default tendency is to think of being baffled as bewilderment, a state of being perplexed, puzzled, confused, discombobulated, and anything but certain.
I prefer to think of it more as thwarting, deflecting, diverting, and hindering, bringing our attention to where it is needed.
In a world driven by efficiency and productivity, investors like money to flow from one place to another as quickly as possible, even when it washes away things that cannot be valued in money, from people and principles to possibilities. Baffles slow things down, moderate noise, and make us pay attention. We have to consider, reflect, think, and experiment, which can be challenging in a world where we are constantly being sold solutions by “experts.” People sell us logic and detached advice when what we really need is someone to walk with us, sharing the journey.
There is something enormously powerful about a selfless question being asked at the right time, in the right place, because, in the right company, questions convert bafflement into creativity and creativity into action.
Experts turn up for the money. Artisans turn up for the journey.
The artisan is uncertain about what to do and how to do it. Not with who am I and can I do it? There is no actual failure, only the next iteration of discovery. And, if we look critically at many of the business self-help improvement books, they suggest all we need is plan to build confidence that is essentially a program of mind-over-matter. They sell well because hope springs eternal. The reality is that artisanship is hard work over a long period of time with the reward being the revealing of dogged character that never gives up, finds joy in little successes, and deeply appreciates the people who see the value and beauty in their work. I would not trade this life for early success that I must always try to replicate. The quest to unearth the unknown unknowns of our lives gives us a constant, yet unknown horizon, to shoot for. Makes life worth living.