Saturday, October 2, 2010

Doubt is better than certainty

Kung Fu training, Qionghai Lake, Xichang

Ran into this interesting quote about doubt from the designer Milton Glaser this morning:
"Everyone always talks about confidence in believing what you do. I remember once going to a class in yoga where the teacher said that, spirituality speaking, if you believed that you had achieved enlightenment you have merely arrived at your limitation. I think that is also true in a practical sense. Deeply held beliefs of any kind prevent you from being open to experience, which is why I find all firmly held ideological positions questionable. It makes me nervous when someone believes too deeply or too much. I think that being sceptical and questioning all deeply held beliefs is essential. Of course we must know the difference between scepticism and cynicism because cynicism is as much a restriction of one’s openness to the world as passionate belief is. They are sort of twins. And then in a very real way, solving any problem is more important than being right."
It's from a talk entitled Ten things I have learned,which sums up his experience working in the world of design, but I think it applies equally well to life in another culture. Or just Life in general...

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