Ness Labs: The Psychology of Intellectual Self-Doubt đź§
mail.google.com
Ness Labs: The Psychology of Intellectual Self-Doubt đź§
“Analysis taught me to think. Taught me to use my tendency to object to articulated ideas about my own ideas, taught me to use doubt, to examine my own speech for its evasions and excisions. The longer I withheld conclusion, the more I saw. I was learning, I believe, how to write as well.”
Louis GlĂĽck via Laura Marling
Producing original or interesting or creative work is a delicate balance between believing what you are doing is incredibly important (otherwise why are you doing it?) and believing that it is not particularly important (otherwise you will be paralyzed into inaction or its close cousin, perfectionism).
Over the years, I’ve tried to train myself: doubt, discuss, dive deeper, understand better, assimilate input from others, reflect on what I’ve learned, get in touch with my intuition, make a decision, and then get to work. The doubt doesn’t really go away, but from that point on, it mostly sits on the sidelines while I do what I’ve decided to do.
Ar