Channel the Mystery

We do things for the mystery more than the facts. Scientists go on into the deepest parts of the ocean, yes to conduct research, but under highly uncertain and dangerous circumstances. What really drives deep sea exploration is the mystery. This is true of anything we create.  If we are writing a book, yes there is structure, yes there are facts, but ultimately we are trying to deliver a kind of mysterious synthesis that precipitates out from our efforts. In this episode I argue that we need to channel the mystery to create our best work.  If that's true, then we should find ways to tap into the unknown when we create.

Suggested Reading Related to Intro Example
The Underworld: Journeys to the Depths of the Ocean by Susan Casey

Episode Music for Intro Example
Sergii Pavkin

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Sancherous things that human partake in, it can be argued, is deep sea exploration. This is, of course, when vessels are created that are able to withstand extremely high pressures, the kind of pressures that you would find thousands of feet below the surface of the ocean. And they take these vessels down into the depths where past the point where the light barely reaches, down into the deeper, deeper parts where there is no light, none detectable, and settle either at an extremely low depth or at the bottom, and look for what they can find. And for many, many years, it was largely thought that there was nothing very low, very deep in the ocean. It just doesn't seem to make sense that life would be there. Why would anything look to exist that deep? How could anything survive with such great pressures? And presumably there would just be a lack of things to eat and a lack of sunlight and all this. So it seems to make sense that nothing would really be down there, or very few things of interest. And of course, we now know otherwise, in these very, very deep depths, the deepest being Mariana's trench, over 35,000ft deep, almost 7 miles, there are all kinds of animals of great variety, using their bioluminescence and different shapes and patterns and textures. And you can obviously just go look online at just how strange and alien like the life is down at these deaths. And this has been one of the most adventurous things humans have really done because of the dangers involved and the uncertainty involved and the prospect of nothing really being down there. It's arguably on par with space exploration, where you're going to just this absolute, for the most part, utterly unknown area with inhospitable environments, and maybe there'll be nothing there when you get there and you're putting your life at great risk. And of course, it takes an absolute ton of money just to reach these places. Tens and tens of millions of dollars are spent on deep sea exploration, largely on the equipment that's obviously needed and also the ships to take that equipment out there and whatever kind of research and scanning that has to happen to make sure that these are places that are worthwhile. And then, of course, people put their lives at risk. If you read about these deep sea explorations, you learn all about the crafts that they must construct, whether that's steel or titanium, and they have to cut at least one little hole in it to provide a window which is going to be several inches thick. And the only thing to look out is that window. And there are just an absolute ton of pressure behind those windows. And the only thing between that pressure and the person observing out that window is this relatively thin layer of whether it's thick plastic or glass and the seals that hold them in place. And there's enough pressure outside the hull of these typically spherical or close to spherical kind of vessels that even a pin p**** hole would apparently shoot at you at the speed of a bullet and essentially cut through you. The pressure is just so great. So there's not a whole lot of room for second chances, and it's just an extremely high risk. But why do people do it? People do it because of the mystery that's down there. They can't help it. I think we'd all like to know. A few of us would actually put our lives at risk to go down as deep as something like the Mariana's trench or anything similar, to basically encase yourself in what is effectively or could be your tomb of iron or steel or titanium, and to be just completely out of reach of anyone that could possibly save you. And to either die in an instant because the pressure just implodes the vessel, or to maybe run out of oxygen and run out of battery power. Whatever it is you need to get back to the surface. And all kinds of things can go wrong with the wiring, the kind of cabin area or the inside can fill with smoke, the crystals or whatever they're using to kind of filter, let's say, the co2 out of the air and to keep it oxygen rich, those might become oversaturated or fail or whatever it is. And I guess it's like any piece of advanced technology, whether that's a passenger jet or a shuttlecraft, a rocket, whatever it is, there's just many, many components, many pieces, and these things have to get battle tested. But ultimately, whether it's that astronaut strapping themselves into the rocket or that aquanaut or whatever you call them that is going in this vessel, once you're in, and once you're at that depth, it's just you and whoever you're with and the equipment that you've built right up to that point. And there's all kinds of interesting facts, obviously, about the variety of species that are that low or that deep, rather, in the water, in the absolute darkness, the patterns and the textures and the bioluminescence and just all these different shapes and behaviors. And they're learning more all the time. Every year, a whole new kind of suite of specimens are discovered, and they just have these amazing look to them and behaviors to them. But why put our lives, or a few people that do this, invest tens of millions of dollars and take such great risk to go to a place that is so deep and so away from life as we know it. It's because of that great mystery we have to know. We really want to know, what is it like to be 30,000ft below the surface of the ocean and to see, and maybe in some sense, even to some extent, interact with animals that you would just never come in contact with. It's a whole world down there and so much of it is still so unexplored. So just to be a piece of that is to experience something that very few other humans would experience, to experience something that, in some sense, maybe nature did not intend you to experience, to just really be a part of one of the greatest mysteries and to do that and to experience that in your lifetime. And so why am I talking about deep sea exploration? Why am I talking about this mystery? Well, I want to touch on this point that we really do things for the mystery more than the facts, more than the analysis, more than the research. We do it for that, too. Obviously, the Aquinox are going down deep to presumably collect some samples or at least take some photographs, get some videos, take notes, log what happens, learn about just deep sea exploration itself, but also the animals that are discovered. But I think more than anything, because you can do that elsewhere, there's no lack of variety on the surface of the earth, on the land, to explore. Going to the jungles, going to the rainforest is just absolutely teeming with life and variety. We don't have a lack of variety on earth and there's no lack of science to do, there's no lack of research. So why go down there? And especially the original kind of aquinox that did that when there was little evidence that there was much of life down there? I mean, things were being kind of trolled up from the fishing nets and stuff, and so there were definitely hints. But to really put your life at risk like that and just to encase yourself in multiple inch thick iron or titanium in the hopes that you could just experience something, I think it's because of the mystery more than anything, even more than the discovery. It's just to be part of what is otherwise absolutely unknown, part of something that is beyond reach. I think that's why we really do things, and I'm talking about deep sea exploration. But fold that into anything that we do when we build things, when we create things, when we make things, there is a definite element of mystery to it. At least there is, if you're doing it correctly, which is what I want to talk about in this episode, it's something that we need to tap into. So imagine that you are. We'll switch gears here now, and we're just going to talk about writing a book or something. Could be anything that you're building or creating, but imagine you're writing a book. Now, of course, there's the research and the analysis and kind of the fact collecting, right? And there's structure that's going to help you. You're going to do the scaffolding of the book and think about that structure. But at the end of the day, the thing that you have to deliver is not just a bunch of structure and facts. It's more like a synthesis. It's more like a blend. It's something that we don't really have a name for. Ultimately, what we're after is actually mysterious because we don't have a name for it. We don't really know how all the facts are going to come together and all that structure is going to come together. It's not a deterministic thing. It's something that emerges, something that arises, that precipitates out of a ton of trial and error, a ton of second guessing, a ton of editing and reworking. And although we need to anchor what we do on structure and facts, there is an absolute level of mystery. There's an ultimate aspect to what we do. And ultimately, what we're after, I think, is something mysterious. Otherwise, it's just trivial. It's just structure and facts. It's just collation, and anybody can do that. Sure, it's time consuming, but we're after something beyond what can be just explained in words. We're after something that is beyond just giving facts to people and doing a bunch of great research and maybe having an interesting narrative structure to what we do. We're trying to achieve a kind of synthesis that there really is no name for. And I think that's always the case in anything that we're creating, anything that we want to bring to this world. What we're really after is a kind of mystery. It is mysterious because we don't have a name for it. We're going into the unknown. We don't know how it's possibly going to come together for anything really worthwhile on any project that we have. Could be a business project, could be helping a client, could be a piece of artwork, could be writing the book. The final result is not something that you're going to be able to predict. We know how to bring in the inputs, we know how to gather resources. We have processes in place. But what that process really gets us, if it goes well, is something mysterious, is something that gets kind of revealed to us. And so, just as doing something as extreme as going thousands of feet deep into the ocean, so, too does something compel us to write books and start businesses and social programs and whatever it is we want to bring to the world, at least for a lot of us that are looking to create things. And I think even something that might seem mundane, maybe the boss is telling you to make something at work and you're going to put it together. But I know a part of you doesn't just want to do the bare bones or the trivial stuff. You want to hand something back to the boss that is you, that is unique, that calls upon your unique talent, so that someone looks upon that and says, wow, that's a good job. I like what you did here, and nobody's going to say that to you unless you tapped into something kind of mysterious, that you tapped into something that is more than just the sum of its parts, something that goes beyond what everybody can just do through analysis and fact collecting, unless you're literally just tabulating a spreadsheet. Most things that we build and create have an element of mystery to them. And I don't mean that in any fantastic way. I just mean mystery in the sense that there is something unknown. We don't know what it's going to be until we get there. But if it goes well, it's going to be revealed. And like discovering a new species with some fascinating bioluminescence or some kind of ancient rock formations or lava outgrowths, these vents or whatever, that they're finding thousands of feet deep under the ocean with a little bit of light that you have or that you shine on it and it gets revealed and there's just this essence of something that is mysterious. And that's what you're trying to grab onto. A book I read recently about deep sea exploration, they said they go deeper. They go deeper. They go deeper, and then they kind of shine their light out. And what is reflected back is this. They said something like the blue that has no name, or a blue hue that has no name, or something like this. This idea that you're looking at this color that you've just never really experienced before. You know, it's blue, you recognize it, but you've never seen a blue like that. And it's just because you're so deep. It's a completely alien world. And it's kind of like when they say, you should have sent the poet, right. You shouldn't have sent me. You should have sent a poet. You just can't really describe what you're looking at. It is alien, it is mysterious. But that's why you're here, and that's why you're doing it. I don't need a label for it. I just need to experience that. And I think when we create things, that's what we're really after. Why else would we do it? You could say, well, maybe recognition, or maybe you're trying to make money, or you want to be known for something. Yeah, but none of that would happen anyways. Unless someone can attribute a kind of synthesis that you were able to create out of the usual structure and facts that people use to build things. You're trying to tap into a mystery. It's the ultimate driving force in life. And so what I want to argue in this episode is that we need to channel that mystery to create our best work. We need to tap into whatever that is, whatever that unlabeled thing is that we're hunting after. When we create things that we want to see revealed to us, we all want to have that blue that has no name kind of reflected back at us. When things start to finally precipitate out of. After all our efforts, after all our trial and error and all our thinking and second guessing and editing, we want to be able to step back and say, there it is. And I don't even really know how I got here. Yes, I have a process. Yes, I have skills. But you're tapping into that mystery, and it's not just after the fact. You want to tap into that as you're building and as you're creating. And this is the same idea of being in the zone or being in the flow state. When we are really creating and we're really going at something, it's like we're tapping into kind of a force that's bigger than us, right? We're tapping into this energy. We don't know where it comes from. We don't know why it exists, but we're just flowing. And instead of trying to latch on to specific structures and specific labels for things, we're latching on to kind of emotional cues. We're kind of chasing a feeling. And when you're in that state, and I think all of us have had that at least one time, when you just felt in the zone, maybe you were playing a sports game. Maybe you're playing soccer, tennis or something. Or maybe you were running. If you run for, like, 40, 50 minutes, closer to an hour. All of a sudden, for some magical reason, it's like you're not tired anymore and you kind of get into this new equilibrium and you're in the zone and it feels like you can almost run forever. And it's kind of euphoric. And I'm not saying if you sit down to do some writing that you're going to be in some kind of euphoric state, but you do need to try to tap into a kind of element of something mysterious. You got to get in that zone, you have to flow. It's what we're after. It's the reason we're doing it. And if you do that, there's a great creative force there where things get revealed to you that you couldn't have predicted, where your mind is doing things that you didn't even know it could do. You're coming up with those words, you're deeking someone out with the hockey puck or the soccer ball, you're negotiating a deal with other people at the end of the business table, and you're just in that zone, you're in that flow and things are moving. You're not thinking about it anymore. You've kind of transcended the point of analysis and logic and structure, which are needed absolutely as basic anchors. But you have to go beyond that. You got to go the 30,000ft into the sea. You've got to tap into that element of mystery because that's really what you're after. And not only is it rewarding, because that gets reflected back at you when things start to precipitate out and you realize what you're able to create, but you want to tap into that as you're doing it. I think to do our best work, we need to channel the mystery. We need to channel the mystery to create our best work. And what is that mystery? I don't really have a name for it. I don't think you do either. It's the zone, it's the flow state. It's kind of an emotional cue or a set of emotional cues. But whatever it is, you got to tap into that because it's well beyond the facts and the logic and the structure. And that's where you got to get if you want to synthesize your absolute best work. And if that's true, that we need to channel that mystery to create our best work, then we should find ways to tap into the unknown when we create, to tap into that mystery. Obvious question then is, how do you do it? And I think there's a number of ways you might already have your own way to do this. Maybe it is kind of going for a run before you do work because it kind of just puts you into a meditative state. I think music is really good. I know that when I play certain music, it puts me into a mood. And you can imagine sitting down to write and you've got music playing whatever kind of music that kind of taps into those emotional cues that you need. And then you just start flowing and you just start going. And yes, you've got some scaffolding, you've got some structure. Maybe you have a process that you use to write, but now it's beyond that. You're transcending that and you're tapping into that mystery. And that's all I wanted to say in this episode. I think it's really important not just to say, here's what I want to do and here's how I'm going to go do it, which is your process and your logic and your structure. That's absolutely critical. You want to keep that to a minimum. But the less structure there is, the more powerful it is, as I like to say. So it's really critical to use a very little amount of structure. You don't want no structure. You definitely want that. You want to have a tractable process in place that's going to work for you. But I think part of that process needs to find a way to go beyond those logical things, those things that we have categories for and labels for. You got to tap into the mystery, you got to get into the zone, the flow state, because if you can tap into that, it's going to give you something in your work. It's going to give you the words, it's going to give you the moves, it's going to give you the hand gestures or whatever it is you need in the thing that you're presenting or creating or building. It's going to give you the ideas, it's going to give you the synthesis. Okay? So I think we ultimately do things for that level of mystery that transcends just the facts. That's why people would strap themselves into this iron vessel sphere and go 30,000ft, where they could die in an absolute instant or suffocate to death over days, and just put themselves. Not just to discover new species, not just to kind of log the facts of what's going on at that depth, but to tap into the mystery. I think that's really what drives us. And I don't think that's a hokey thing. I don't think that's a hand wavy thing. I think everyone has to tap into it, even though we don't have a category or a label for it. That's what makes it so powerful. And whenever we make things, we're really trying to create the mystery. That's what we're after, and we need to channel that mystery to really create our best work, we have to find a way to tap into it. And there are all kinds of ways you might be able to do that. Maybe it's meditation. Maybe it's exercise. Maybe it's a certain environment you put yourself into. Maybe it's a community you tap, you network with. For me, I think music works really well. It kind of changes my mental state, allows me to tap into something that just transcends the basic facts of the situation. Okay, we do things for the mystery. We got to find that mystery. We got to tap into it will give us our absolute best work. Okay, that's it for this episode. Happy new year, everyone. Looking forward to the brand new season five. Thanks for listening, and as always, take care of you.