A while back someone asked me about something confusing in one of my courses.
This course happened to be a thought provoking course. That was the intent. I wanted people to think.
When I was making the course, I was worried that people wouldn’t like it. Or that it wouldn’t engage them in deep thought.
Turns out quite the opposite. I had several people ask me follow up questions that indicated they were thinking deeply about the content.
That made my day, several times. Including the aforementioned person that was confused. I looked into the confusion they illuminated and I agreed that the confusion was legitimate.
Now you might be thinking that I would then change the content of the course. To clear things up. But that’s exactly the opposite of what I wanted for this course.
Instead, I addressed that person’s confusion in a private conversation.
And, I’m hopeful that more people will reach out about this course, maybe even other people confused with the exact same question.
Because that means there are hundreds of other people that are thinking deeply about this and learning a lot as a result. That to me is mission accomplished.
What you say and what you do, when it comes to educating others, doesn’t need to be devoid of ambiguity. Not everything has to add up. It’s ok if 1 + 1 = 2.3
This doesn’t mean you’re wrong.
This doesn’t mean you’re right.
It just means that you’re inspiring others to think.
The beauty of the human mind, and one of the best ways to develop it, is to perturb it into confusion long enough to contemplate something of consequence.
Inquisition is the foundation of learning.
How can you use confusion to help other people?