The columnist is in a prickly place. He’s breaking the silence regularly and presenting himself before the judgement and scrutiny of the world, and he does so because he thinks it’s a good idea.
Unless he doesn’t think it’s a good idea, in which case he will become a hypocrite: silently vocal, hiding in plain sight.
And you can become very creative in how you do it.
You can agree with everyone all the time.
You can dance between speaking and silence, choosing what to vocalize, and when.
You can hide behind theoreticals (a favorite in the business genre).
Or you can present yourself as supremely objective—just here to report the facts, ma’am, it’s up to you to decide.
At some time or another, I’ve been guilty of all four.
But in this, my second year, here is what I aspire to do.
G. K. Chesterton, a journalist in 20th century England, made a classification difference between an “Essay”, and a “Thesis”, and this message is just what our culture needs.
He says the Essay has been redefined as an exploration into the problems with not a lot of answers attached. It is the mirror of the post-modern mind, which doesn’t like thinking about conclusions but would prefer to stay “idle and wandering” (his words).
But on the other hand, he says the Thesis is the declarative statement that shapes conclusions. The Thesis dominated the pre-modern mindset, as everyone thought in terms of objective fact. “After a certain amount of wandering the mind wants either to get there or to go home.”
So the Essay focuses on the journey while the Thesis focuses on the destination.
The reason this matters is because in the life of business, we often seek encouragement from our progress and see our lives like a looping, swooping storyline, excusing errors and mishaps with positive self-talk about our personal growth, as if the destination of real change and real success evades us.
Ideas come and go, seemingly without a home.
We read book after book presenting wonderfully exciting theoretical ideas and don’t know why none of them helped us with our productivity and distraction problem.
We are floating just far enough above reality to not have to cope with the ugly truth that we may possibly be far lazier than we ever dreamed, and we are using floating Essays as our magic carpet.
Floating Essayists love the quote, “To travel hopefully is better than to arrive,” while Thesis-hungry folks realize that without arrival, travel will grow tiresome, even heinous.
I’ve been doing this dance in this prickly place for a year now, and one thing I’ve learned is this: I’d rather be dead wrong and humbly honest about it than hide behind silence or a pile of theoreticals.
I just don’t want to waste your time.
And the good thing is, there are a lot of things I don’t know, that none of us knows. This call to a renewed commitment to Thesis is not a call away from questions, it’s a commitment to, ultimately, finding answers.
But boy, is it hard and humbling work.
Mark Twain said it best, “It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt.”
Well my friends, the doubt has been removed, and no matter what, that’s a good thing.