This apple is the second and last episode of a tiny series that I started yesterday. If you haven't read episode one yet, you can find it here.
Knowledge is seductive and powerful. However, it can often trap us into believing that we can solve and predict everything if we have enough data, knowledge and skills until we become enthralled by what we know. We seek what is probable, and in doing so, we overlook or dismiss what is possible. Sure, we can create a steady and linear growth full of successes. But disruption, by its very definition, is unpredictable. It can only originate outside what we know. That's why we must practise subtraction, letting go of what we know and experiencing what Feynman calls the "state of confusion".
If we practise subtraction at those three layers - physical, social and cognitive - we learn to unleash the power of our intuition, that ability to sense reality that we all natively possess. As children, we knew nothing about the world around us; we had minimal knowledge and skills. Yet, we thrived. We were able to not only find but create our way forward. When we think about children, words like curiosity and creativity come to mind. Unfortunately, growing up, we accumulate layers and layers of stuff, emotions, knowledge, conditioning and beliefs that entangle our creative potential.
But it's there. We just have to dig it out by subtracting all those layers accumulated in our life.
There's a fifth layer, one of non-duality and unity. When we unlock it, we experience what American-Hungarian psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi defined as flow. We experience being more of who we believe we are.
But my fifteen minutes has just ended, so I'll write more about it in the future. In the meantime, you can learn about this and the process of subtraction in our book, Subtraction.