Last week, I agreed to an interview, a virtual meeting with Astrid Habraken over Zoom, delving into me starting my own YouTube channel, my take on social media, and on the benefits of having your own nwsletter.
Towards the tail end of our chat, Astrid asked if I had any last pearls of wisdom to drop. Well, I decided to speak on something which has been on my mind quite a bit lately: critical thinking.
See, whenever you start anything new, it’s only logical to seek guidance from those who’ve done it before. I can’t deny the merit in that, to a certain extent. Think about it, if you were diving headfirst into chess, you’d do well to immerse yourself in the tactical and strategic musings of the masters. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel all the time, you really don’t.
But, and here’s where it gets interesting, believe it or not, take it way overboard. They claim learning something fresh, or inventing something yourself, is such a Herculean task, so time-consuming, that you just shouldn’t bother with it at all. Just find the top guy in their fields, they’d say, and copy whatever they do. It turns something as pure as “learning” and turns it into something grotesque, always on the lookout for the next golden nugget, which will cause a massive surge of success for them.
However, by always looking for the next shortcut, you may well find you outpace other beginners, only to slam headfirst into a glass ceiling. It’s called a ‘plateau’, a point in your progress where no matter how hard you push, you just can’t break through. And if you’ve never done anything beside fostering a dependence on borrowed solutions, it might well prove to be very tricky to go beyond it.
Problem-solving, you see, it’s a muscle, a muscle that yearns for exercise. Neglect it, and it withers away, just like last night’s dreams. It’s that simple.
So, just a few days back, I stumbled upon a YouTube video featuring a fellow from New Zealand, a self-styled entrepreneur. Now, this ain’t Steve Jobs or Jeff Bezos we’re talking about here. Instead of aiming to reshape entire industries, he’s taken the well-trodden path of the info-publishing world. And he’s swallowed the dogma whole: find the top dogs and copy them. On the surface, this approach might sound fine, but it’s a path that leads many astray, marching forward without ever wondering about the ‘why’. Ever wonder why everyone you a free e-book in exchange for your email address, followed by drowning you in a deluge of daily emails afterwards? Well, now you know why.
Now, in this video I saw, our New Zealand entrepeneur discussed his new plans: launch a podcast with fellow entrepreneurs just like him. With kid-like enthusiasm, he declared his intention to copy the well-known podcast, the Joe Rogan Experience. And I do mean copy down to the very last detail. He wanted the same microphones, the same overall look, etc. etc. He flashed a screenshot of Joe’s podcast as he explained all of this, clearly reveling in his scheme. Now, for any run-of-the-mill podcast wannabe, I wouldn’t pass judgment. But here’s the thing: this kid fancies himself an innovative entrepreneur, priding himself on bringing ‘value’ to this world. And what’s his first instinct? Why, to mimic and clone, of course. It’s quite a paradox, ain’t it?
In his circles, they often parrot the phrase, “How you do one thing, is how you do everything.” It’s a gross oversimplification, no doubt, but in this case, it seems oddly fitting. I’m not saying you can’t learn from others, nor am I saying you have to reinvent the wheel every time. But there’s much to be said about learning something yourself, and not just copying without question, or ask these supposed gurus for their guidance throught their expensive online courses – information they acquired by copying others. Food for thought.
Kind regards
Vincent J. Dancet