There are two things considered as setting the human race apart from other species, the first being our ability to share knowledge; our deep-seated drive to exchange our thoughts – to teach and to learn.
Generally, by being self taught and working in isolation I have to make do on my own, picking up the odd tip and trick as I go but I’m basically flying blind. When what I’m doing doesn’t seem to be working I can quickly lose confidence in my ability to make the right choices and decisions without any reassuring or guiding voice.
I’d love for someone to sit on my shoulder and show me how to do it properly and I often consider whether without this I may well be wasting my time.
This may help me fast-track that which others have already learned in the past, but what about exploration and developing a style of my own? What is it that I am bringing to the table? I don’t just want to be a pale facsimile of someone else’s ‘way’.
While it is harder working without specific guidance, these apparent difficulties can be ultimately rewarding as you learn resilience, persistence to keep coming back and the draw of discovering things for yourself – intrinsically your way.
This fits in nicely with the second thing considered as setting the human race apart from other species, our ability to think about alternative situations and embed them into larger narratives.
It is not just our ability to share knowledge but also our desire to explore beyond the horizon, to exist in the uncomfortableness and to discover new things and then take what we have learned and share it to the world – we just have to strike the right balance.
