Instead of digging a deep hole
it might be easier just to fall in.
What do I mean? Find out by watching our Truth in Two (full text below).
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Pictures: Josh Collingwood, Snappy Goat
FULL TEXT
Often, I find myself backing-in to big ideas or big idea people. Here’s an example. I loved the Jesse Stone movies when they first came out and began to ask, “I wonder where those stories originated?” That bit of a quest led me to Robert B. Parker, author of over 50 novels. I dug a little deeper and discovered that Parker earned a PhD in literature. Still further I found that Parker’s PhD dissertation was based on pot-boiler crime writers like Raymond Chandler. The Big Sleep, a Chandler creation, became one of the great film-noir movies of all-time, starring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall. “That’s so cool!” I thought, “A PhD student chased down the authors of pot-boiler crime novels, and then went on to write them himself!”
I could go further down that rabbit hole, but I’ll stop there. Do you see my point? I backed-in to knowledge. I backed-in to someone’s PhD work. I didn’t begin where most academics begin, focused on a problem, then digging a deep hole of research to find an answer. No, Mark, not paying attention, falls in the deep hole and wonders how he got there. But since I’m in the deep hole of unknowing I begin to think, “Oh! That’s interesting!” And I start to explore.
That’s what I mean by “backing-in.” Sure, I’ve earned a bunch of degrees doing research necessary for that field. But honestly, the work I do often begins with the thought, “Oh! That’s cool!” rather than “There is a problem. I’m going to find a solution.”
Maybe you’re like me. You watch some movie and think, “I wonder where that came from?” And you’re off. You pursue your interests. Your interests become your passions. Your passions cause you to enjoy life’s delights. And at the end of the day, you realize you just backed-in to knowledge.
For Truth in Two, this is Dr. Mark Eckel, president of the Comenius Institute, personally seeking truth wherever it’s found.