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Do we – in the rush to display our ‘personal brand’ through confidence, presence and certainty, deny room for doubt, curiosity and learning?"
Katherine Thomas, Free Range Lawyers

"The best are full of doubts"

The indie poet Charles Bukowski is just about as quotable as it gets. Raw and relevant, he’s the master of a phrase that packs a punch.
Take my favourite: “The problem with the world is that intelligent people are full of doubts, while the stupid ones are full of confidence.”

Writing earlier last century, Yeats conveyed a similar thought in his poem ‘The Second Coming’: “The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity.”

It’s a cheap jibe to link Yeats and Bukowski’s sentiments to notable political leaders over the last few years, but – heck – it feels good, so I’ll do it nevertheless.

But what about closer to home?

Are there things we can learn from these deliberately provocative statements?

Do we – in the rush to display our ‘personal brand’ through confidence, presence and certainty, deny room for doubt, curiosity and learning?
Do we – in an effort to be marketable, quash the side of us that sees things from several perspectives?
Do we – in a push to say something that connects with our tribe, remove the ability to not have all the answers?
Do we – in our focus on creating content, care less about what we say than how often we say it?
Do we – in our desire for likes and engagement, unhelpfully simplify what is a very complex world?
Am I – in a perfect meta example – doing all of the above with this post???

I enjoy the cheekiness of the phrases Bukowski and Yeats composed, but I’ve rephrased them in my mind to describe the world I see. I'm not as poetic (who knew?!), but it works for me and goes something like:
“The problem with the world is that we don’t make room for not knowing, masking doubt in a cloak of confidence that squashes nuance, compresses uncertainty, blocks curiosity, and removes space to grow.”

Have we all become too “full of confidence”?
Is our collective “passionate intensity” making us “the worst” that Yeats describes?
Is it time for less confidence and more curiosity?