Blogging Ottinger (tim)Hanging at the Lonely Edge
Sometimes we have to work at the raw edge of what we know, and that’s a pretty scary feeling. If you are good at what you do, then you will be asked to push that envelope fairly often — always pushing a little further out into space that needs exploring. Ideally, you are able to do that in a way that isn’t too public.
When you have colleagues pairing with you, in the next room or in the next chair or only a chat session away, you have more security for doing public things. You can vet your ideas with intelligent, experienced people - or at least pool your analytic skills in group “what-if” thinking. Then your steps are a little more sure (there is wisdom in many counselors).
Sometimes, however, you have to go it alone, and the edge is frightening. When you are there, you become frightened that you will make errors, that you will be left with nothing to contribute, that you won’t have the answer (even an obvious one) when it is needed. It’s equally frightening if you are only at the edge of /your/ knowledge, and other people not available to you have the information you need. You can get lost in “what does X know that i don’t?” and “how would Y do this?” and “how do I know if this is the right thing to do”. Borrowing from a popular sci-fi book series: “fear is the mind-killer.”
I think that the Lord meant it when he said “It is not good for man to be alone.”
I think that generally the best we have to offer people is our transparency. We don’t need to keep up a front as if we were the world’s leading expert on the world. Sometimes we all have to just be human, and in being human we must be frank about our situation. But along with being frank, we have to keep pushing forward.
I think it takes a fair amount of prayer and support and hope to push the lonely edge, or maybe only for people as weak and broken as me. Sometimes the support and hope are harder to find.
Ahh, but you need to keep in mind that only the intelligent and informed have a lonely edge.
This paper:
http://www.apa.org/journals/features/psp7761121.pdf
points out the fact that most people are so uninformed they think they are experts in whatever it is they have no idea about.
Comment by Josh Bressers — 2006-May-31 @ 02:22
This is the “unconscious incompetence” level in the old four-stage learning plan: Unconscious Incompetence -> Conscious Incompetence -> Conscious Competence -> Unconscious Competence.
It’s fascinating stuff. I think I have blogged it before, but here is another link: http://www.businessballs.com/consciouscompetencelearningmodel.htm
Comment by Tim — 2006-June-4 @ 09:53