Sometimes the Devil You Don't Know is Better than the Devil You Do

The one thing I’d most like my students to realize is that failure—including looking stupid—is the pathway to success. Anyone who doesn’t understand that will give up too easily. It is most important to be in motion, racking up the failures you can learn from.

The video above (an excerpt from Jordan Peterson’s lecture on the biblical story of Joseph and the Coat of Many Colors) makes this point eloquently. Below, I’ve transcribed some quotations that I’ll comment on. Here is the first one:

… so there’s some utility in pursuing the things you are interested in. That’s the call to adventure … Now the problem with the call to adventure is … what the hell do you know? You might be interested in things that are kind of warped and bent. And often it’s the case that when new parts of people manifest themselves, and grip their interest … they do it very badly and shoddily. And so, you stumble around like an idiot when you try to do something new. That’s why the Fool is the precursor to the Savior, from the symbolic perspective. You have to be a fool before you can be a master. And if you’re not willing to be a fool, then you can’t be a master. So, it’s an error-ridden process.

I’m currently listening to Joseph Campbell’s classic, The Hero with a Thousand Faces. In the myths and fairy tales that encapsulate some of the deep wisdom of our species, it is clear that refusing the call to adventure is a bad idea. In some sense, you have to be a fool to go on an adventure, but that is the route to becoming more than what you are now.

So, they’re fools…. But, the thing that’s so interesting is that, despite the fact that they’re fools, they’re still supposed to go on the adventure. And that they’re capable of learning enough as a consequence of moving forward on the adventure that they straighten themselves out over time.

Fortunately, there is an error-correction process that makes foolish mistakes redemptive, if you learn from them.

And so you can take these tentative steps on your pathway to destiny, and you can assume that you’re going to do it badly. And that’s really useful, because you don’t have to beat yourself up. It’s pretty easy to do it badly. But the thing is, it’s way better to do it badly that not to do it at all.

If you get that messing up is normal, then you know you don’t have to be hard on yourself for messing up. And one’s own self-flagellation is often the scariest thing of all. So if you are determined not to be too hard on yourself when you mess up, you are much more likely to have enough courage to take the risk of putting yourself out there.

… it doesn’t matter that you overshoot continually. Because as you overshoot, even if you don’t learn what you should have done, you’re going to continually learn what you shouldn’t keep doing. And if you learn enough about what you shouldn’t keep doing … that’s tantamount at some point to learning at the same time what you should be doing.

Many of us have wished for oracular knowledge so that we don’t ever have to make mistakes. But oracles don’t come free. For example, at the Oracle of Delphi, you had to sacrifice a goat. In many, many cases the cost of learning on your own from experience is reasonable—less than the cost of a goat.

It’s OK to wander around stupidly before you fix your destination. Now you see that echoed in Exodus…. Because what happens is that the … Hebrews escape a tyranny. Which is kind of whatever you do, personally and psychologically when you escape from your previously of stupidly-held and ignorant and stubborn axioms…. Now you’re in the desert.

Psychological toughness is needed when you do something new. It may get a lot easier; you may even come to love it. But the beginning may be rough.

You can also be deluded into the idea … that’s just a linear pathway uphill … from one success to another. No it’s not.

It’s good to read and listen to life stories from people who are honest about the struggles in their lives. There are differences in degree, but life is hard in some way for everyone.

… you go ahead on your movement forward, and you collapse, and you think “Well that didn’t work. I collapsed.” … No, that’s par for the course. It’s not indication that you failed, it’s just indication that it’s really hard. And that when you learn something, you also unlearn something.

In addition to the fear of looking stupid, or getting hurt, one reason you may shy away from daring to learn is that learning can cause your identity to shift. You might discover that what you thought you knew before, isn’t so. And in so doing, you may realize how badly suboptimal your previous choices were. But it’s better to know and keep progressing.

The fact that you’re full of faults doesn’t mean you have to stop…. And the fact that you’re full of faults doesn’t mean that you can’t learn.

Finally, despite all the attempts that have been made by others to bolster your self-esteem, if you haven’t stretched yourself yet, you are likely see yourself as too small to tackle big projects. It’s time to start with whatever size of life project you can handle right now—something that is at the limit of your current abilities—and work your way up from there. Who knows what you might be capable of if you keep building your capabilities?

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