I listened to a portion of an Ezra Klein podcast this morning. Klein interviewed surgeon, writer and philosopher of sorts, Atul Gawande. In one portion of the podcast, Gawande suggests that for the first time in history more of our woes can be attributed to ineptitude rather than ignorance. Sure there are a host of topics on which we are still ignorant. But Gawande suggests that we have so much knowledge today that is not applied to our everyday lives. And that’s creating problems. It’s as if the system is “set up for us to fail,” he suggests. You can check out his comments here.

 

This notion drew up in me a thought and a question:

  1. I am inept
  2. Where (and how) is my ineptitude reducing my effectiveness?

 

Though it’s not exactly the happiest thought, facing my ineptitude may be the first step out of it. Could it be that pinpointing, naming and designing strategies that move us out of ineptitude is “the work of life” and the path to greater ingenuity?

 

So, all together now:

 

  1. We are inept
  2. Where (and how) is our ineptitude reducing our effectiveness?