On Becoming a Super - Part 5: Show Up and Assume You're Wrong
March 4, 2020

    As you practice the virtues and work to minimize your vices, try this additional strategy for identifying and developing your superpowers:

    Be present. Observe the needs around you.  The role of a superhero is to respond constructively to real needs in the world.  But you cannot respond to what you do not see.  So superhero practice first requires observation, and observation is a three-fold process.  The first step involves letting go – letting go of what you think you already know about the world around you and its needs.  Try this: assume for few days that you're wrong about everything about the people you come into contact with – people you know very well, people you only know casually or in professional settings, people you only pass on the street.  You carry all sorts of preconceived notions about all of these people, and some of those preconceived notions seem fairly well-founded on past experience.  And perhaps they are well-founded.  But take a few days and just assume that you're wrong about everything about these people, why they dress as they do, drive as they do, work as they do (or don't), communicate as they do (or don't).  

    Then just observe, by which I mean – and this is the second step – take note of what people do without judging it.  There will be plenty of time for forming judgments later, but it's unnecessary – counterproductive, in fact – to judge at the observation stage.  The point of observation is to generate new and interesting questions about what is going on around you, and you can't ask real questions about things you already (think you) know the answers to.  So first dislodge your preconceived notions by assuming all those notions are just wrong.  Then suspend your real-time judgments for a while as well, and just watch.  Just let the data – and the questions – roll in.  Why do these people behave as they do? 

   Finally, for each question, come up with at least three to five different explanations.  The explanations must be plausible, meaning they must be consistent with the data – and you have to be wary here of simply falling back onto your preconceived notions, especially when you realize you don't have enough data to tell whether an explanation is plausible or not.  Don't let that stop you from generating possible explanations; reasonable hypotheses will drive sound collection of further data, which will, in turn, produce better questions and ultimately better explanations (i.e., explanations that are more consistent with the data).  The key is to resist the temptation to settle on the quickest and easiest explanation, or any explanation, too quickly.  A multitude of possible explanations is what makes space in your mind for more creative – and, more importantly, more effective – solutions.  No such space, no such solutions – no superpowers.
 
    The point here is to train yourself to be as present in the world as you can be – that is, as unshielded from and unencumbered by your preconceived ideas and your impulse to judge as you can make yourself.  Perfect detachment from those ideas and your judgment reflex is probably not possible, but if it is your goal to see the needs of the world and to ready yourself to address some of them, then spend some time assuming you're wrong about what is going on here.

    Create space, in other words, for surprise – the surprise of seeing the world around you with fresh eyes.  You might be surprised at what happens next.