These Things Won't Be Mysteries Anymore

So when Steve Jobs was in elementary school, his neighbor was an engineer at Hewlett-Packard who introduced him to Heathkits - those electronic, do it yourself kits. Jobs started building radios, amplifiers, and battery testers in his own garage. I love what he said about them...

"These things were not mysteries anymore."

There's no doubt that tinkering is what gave Jobs the insight to create a revolutionary computer company. He went onto say, "[The kits] gave a tremendous level of self-confidence, that through exploration and learning one could understand seemingly very complex things."

Mystery paralyzes us. It makes us feel like we can only do what we know. It makes employees feel like they can never do anything else... and entrepreneurs like their options are limited.

The antidote to mystery is tinkering.

It's why I'm getting on planes to cities I've never visited before... e-mailing ideas to people I've never met... attending events I've never gone to... and reading books outside my usual disciplines.

Comments

[Jerel]

This is a really good post. Sometimes we have to run toward the mystery and chase it down. If we ignore it, or run from it, it just grows bigger and scarier (in our minds, anyway). This is actually why, even though I'm a pastor, I wrote a fiction novel. At first it was a beast, but once I started tinkering, it was fun, and actually kind of thrilling. Sometimes we're called to run toward what scares us, not away.

In another vein, it's why I like listen to stuff like NPR (man, that makes me sound old, geez I'm only 38) - along with the other myriad of things I listen to in the car. I like to hear about new ideas. Doesn't mean I agree with everything, but if we don't let our thinking get challenged, are we growing? There's a lot we can learn from all kinds of people.

Sadly, I think in the church we like to stay between the "evangelical guardrails" way too much.

[Kyle Reed]

I love this. Just gets me excited to even think about tinkering and ideating.
I think the thing I struggle with is tinkering in a creative way.
For someone who (still) does not have a job I have to be very creative in the way I tinker.
But you are right, the best is emailing people about ideas and connecting that way.
Amazing to see the openness of people as well.

[Terrace Crawford]

Yep, I'm doing those things too. People like you inspire me to do so.

--Terrace Crawford
www.terracecrawford.com
www.twitter.com/terracecrawford

[Mike O]

Those were great days - the Heathkit days! Nowadays, we have people building their own numerically-controlled milling machines. And Arduino has opened up many to embedded computer systems (like the computer that runs your microwave oven).

Churches indeed lend themselves to this kind of tinkering - the analytical tools of organizational behavior minimize the mystery.

Indeed, an inspiring post.

[Jskogerboe]

GREAT post... "The antidote to mystery is tinkering." Brilliant. Thanks you and God bless, Ben.

[Mason Stanley]

I found almost six months ago that I wished I was doing my hobby instead of my position. I thought more about increasing my knowledge for my tinkering than I did for my position. This raised an important question for me. Am I doing what I was meant to do, or do I need to follow my passions and how God has gifted and designed me... Now I'm on the path to doing what I love and what I as tinkering with as well as looking outside that field to see how it can help my passions. It's not a mystery any more and I still love it!

[Allan W.]

Excellent post. I find that when a subject or task is scary, and I'm drawn to it, just starting to play around with it is a great place to start. I've done this with basketball (I suck, but I love to play), guitar (still learning the ropes), worship leading (terror! Adrenaline!) and skateboarding (trying not to kill myself, and there's lots of 30+ skaters in Portland). I've tried to "travel boldly" abroad as well (meeting locals, eating what they eat, and not imagining terrorists at every corner).

This has huge implications for how we teach our kids to persevere, and to not be intimidated by skills, people, or technology. Just jump in, tinker with it - and lose the fear of it.

[Ben]

Love it Allan...