Don't Know What I Don't Know
The title of the blog entry sounds kind of obvious. Yet, like everything else under the sun, simplicity ain't so simple.
If we are ignorant of something, like painting, we can look at a painting and go, "OK, it some dude posing with a bowl of fruit on the table." An artist would say, "Oh, the colors, the angles, the capturing of setting and space, and so on." A horticulturalist might see the fruits in the bowl and make note of the variations presented of "Why that apple variety?" and such things. An economist might grasp the socio-economic realities of the painting in the sense that only the highest class could even have a painting done from that era.
So, it is with everything. So what has brought on this expectoration of the mind you might wonder?
I have been back to trying to make my lawn presentable and to meet the minimum acceptance of the neighborhood. I have found crabgrass to be a truly worthy foe. It attacks the regular grass like a mugger pouncing on an old lady for her cash and then cleaning out her place of any valuables while she helplessly looks on. The last week or two, I have been in a death match with the crabgrass and I have been humiliated by the endless defeats at its hand that I have absorbed. Me....Ph.D. student, beaten by a weed.
I have also been fighting battles on other fronts with termites, HVAC issues, plumbing, carpentry, tree trimming, among others, that have glaringly exposed my lack of expertise and wisdom. I search the web, talk to people more knowledgeable than I, and yet I still fall short of closing the gap between my understanding and what I need to know to be somewhat competent to address the matters at hand.
Sometimes, I am not even sure of the right questions to ask. And, if I happen to find a contractor who seems to be experienced and informed, then I worry that they are going to jack up the price as kind of a "stupid tax." I sense that the more I talk, the more obvious it is going to be that I am a piker. So, I try to ask safe questions and attempt to discern if I am getting inconsistent answers to the same type of questions maybe asked a different way at a different time.
It is the best I can do. I generally don't trust people so that gives me some perspective to not take things on face value. As a counselor, I am perpetually considering deeper issues all of the time. I can often connect dots when talking to people about who they are and what they believe while at the same time being approachable and even silly. But, such psychological tools don't necessarily help me figure out what to do in these issues of home repair.
Throwing cash at the problem is not wise...so, learning to know what I don't know will continue to be a challenge. Knowing that I am ignorant, or presuming as a default that I am ignorant, is probably the best place to be. Assumptions of competence can be dangerous.
If we are ignorant of something, like painting, we can look at a painting and go, "OK, it some dude posing with a bowl of fruit on the table." An artist would say, "Oh, the colors, the angles, the capturing of setting and space, and so on." A horticulturalist might see the fruits in the bowl and make note of the variations presented of "Why that apple variety?" and such things. An economist might grasp the socio-economic realities of the painting in the sense that only the highest class could even have a painting done from that era.
So, it is with everything. So what has brought on this expectoration of the mind you might wonder?
I have been back to trying to make my lawn presentable and to meet the minimum acceptance of the neighborhood. I have found crabgrass to be a truly worthy foe. It attacks the regular grass like a mugger pouncing on an old lady for her cash and then cleaning out her place of any valuables while she helplessly looks on. The last week or two, I have been in a death match with the crabgrass and I have been humiliated by the endless defeats at its hand that I have absorbed. Me....Ph.D. student, beaten by a weed.
I have also been fighting battles on other fronts with termites, HVAC issues, plumbing, carpentry, tree trimming, among others, that have glaringly exposed my lack of expertise and wisdom. I search the web, talk to people more knowledgeable than I, and yet I still fall short of closing the gap between my understanding and what I need to know to be somewhat competent to address the matters at hand.
Sometimes, I am not even sure of the right questions to ask. And, if I happen to find a contractor who seems to be experienced and informed, then I worry that they are going to jack up the price as kind of a "stupid tax." I sense that the more I talk, the more obvious it is going to be that I am a piker. So, I try to ask safe questions and attempt to discern if I am getting inconsistent answers to the same type of questions maybe asked a different way at a different time.
It is the best I can do. I generally don't trust people so that gives me some perspective to not take things on face value. As a counselor, I am perpetually considering deeper issues all of the time. I can often connect dots when talking to people about who they are and what they believe while at the same time being approachable and even silly. But, such psychological tools don't necessarily help me figure out what to do in these issues of home repair.
Throwing cash at the problem is not wise...so, learning to know what I don't know will continue to be a challenge. Knowing that I am ignorant, or presuming as a default that I am ignorant, is probably the best place to be. Assumptions of competence can be dangerous.
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