Making No Sense

If you want to be more productive, Austin Kleo says in his book "Show Your Work!: 10 Ways to Share Your Creativity and Get Discovered" that you should stop seeking things that make sense and start looking for things that don't. We live in a world that is totally consistent and unambiguously makes sense in every way. Everything in this cosmos, including our place in it, makes perfect sense. When we come across something that, at first glance, does not make sense, we usually try to find a way to explain it to ourselves in such a manner that it does make sense. When we are children, our parents inculcate in us the assumption that everything in the universe must have a cause and a solution of some kind. Throughout the course of our development, we posed a great number of inquiries to our parents, and they always responded with explanations that were simple and straightforward. Our brains are constructed in a manner that makes it easier for us to learn new things. Imagine for a second, though, that the foundation we laid when we were younger is fragile and prone to breaking apart. For example, we shouldn't immediately assume that the successive actions and effects of a particular action will lead to the conclusion that we want to achieve. If anything like this does happen, would it be fascinating to see what happens? Or is there even a sliver of a chance that it may happen? Those who are exceedingly productive run a greater risk of having their senses assaulted than those who are less prolific. It does not seem to make much of a difference to them whether they choose to go along with what is commonly recognized in the sector or if they choose to go against it. They find that the conventional wisdom that everyone else follows without challenging it is of absolutely no use to them in achieving the goals that they set for themselves.

There are innumerable instances of extraordinary achievements that have been accomplished by going against the conventional thinking of the time. These achievements may be found in both the past and the present. A question that casts doubt on the generally accepted theory at the time often serves as the impetus for important discoveries in the future. Early on in my professional life, I had the chance to work as an electrical engineer for the Saudi Aramco company on a project that entailed the replacement of old electrical substations with brand-new ones. This undertaking required me to collaborate with a team of other engineers. It will be possible to relocate the current electrical loads from the older substations to the new ones after the construction of the new substations has reached its final stage and been finished in its entirety. In order to safely disconnect the legacy loads from the legacy substations and reconnect them to the new substations, we planned to arrange a large number of individual equipment shutdowns. This was done in advance of the new substations so that they would be ready. Following a protracted period in which the whole factory was shut down and the power system was out of commission, the electrical load transfer of the common systems that affect the entire facility was carried out effectively and on schedule. Having said that, this was only achievable after all operations at the facility had been terminated. According to the project plan as well as to one's own common sense, this is the way to go since it makes the most sense. On the other hand, I devised a way to shift the significant loads that affect the whole plant without having to shut down the entire facility and without causing any disruptions to the power supply. This strategy was successful in all respects. I won't get into the details because I don't want to bore you, but the point I'm trying to make is that if we give in to conventional thinking and industry traditions, we won't be able to do anything of this size. I won't go into the specifics because I don't want to bore you. This happened as a direct consequence of the status quo's commonly held beliefs being questioned.

In the book, Ries tells the story of a startup that was struggling to complete a critical project on time. The team had been working on the project for months and had tried everything they could think of to increase productivity, but nothing seemed to be working. One team member decided to take a closer look at the project and noticed that one particular step in the process was taking much longer than it should have. This led the team to investigate the step further and try to understand why it was taking so long. Through their investigation, they discovered that the step was actually unnecessary and could be removed from the process altogether. By eliminating the step, the team was able to complete the project significantly faster and with much less effort. This story shows how looking for things that don't make sense can lead to finding and eliminating inefficiencies in your work processes. By questioning the necessity of certain tasks, we can identify opportunities for optimization and improvement. This can ultimately lead to increased task productivity and better outcomes for our work.

If you give it some thought, I'm sure you can think of a few situations from your own life or the lives of others you've met in which a seemingly impossible goal became surprisingly reachable after undertaking a radical rethink of the problem. These instances may have occurred in your own life or in the lives of people you've come into contact with. Okay, everyone, take a moment to think about notable individuals throughout history who defied the grain of public opinion and established standards in order to do incredible things. I want you all to think of these people now. I want you to think of successful people you know or have heard about who overcame obstacles and achieved their goals despite the obstacles they faced by going against the grain of popular opinion. Consider a time in the past when you faced a challenge and how you overcame it by remaining steadfast in the face of suggestions made by others and common sense.

The extent to which an individual is successful in life is proportional to the degree to which they can use sound judgment and common sense in day-to-day circumstances. If we do not question the reality of conventional wisdom and refuse to let it dictate the course that our lives follow, we will never be able to realize our full potential.