Making nothing out of nothing

When we make something out of nothing, we've found a way to make ourselves miserable. That self-imposed torture stops when we make nothing out of nothing. We realize our error and set the record straight.

We may think there's a big difference between knowledge and ignorance. We can be miserable when we don't know something. We feel embarrassed if we appear stupid, mistaken or misinformed. We equate having questions with lacking knowledge. We may even think mistakes are bad and ignorance is inexcusable. When we go there, we've made something out of nothing.

There's really no significant difference between knowledge and ignorance. The differences pale in comparison to the ecology where they interplay in wonderfully energetic ways. Thinking the differences amount to nothing changes everything:

1. We find it's cool not to know something because what follows is an adventure.
2. We realize that great questions arise from knowing a lot about something already.
3. We want to know less when it seems like we're too smart for our own good.
4. We know what we don't know when we can recognize our own blind spots.
5. We don't know what's missing in our knowledge until we explore its limits and overreaching claims.
6. We finds it's more productive to not know everything when we can learn more about it.
7. We call our ignorance by other names like innocence, wonder, fascination or curiosity.

When knowledge and ignorance come together fruitfully, they translate each other. Each serves as a mediator that transforms the other. We doing an actor-network thing. The difference between knowledge and ignorance makes little difference to them while each makes a big difference. The misery is gone. The fun begins.