People like to know.

It seems to be a good way to deal with uncertainty.

But it also is how we are wired.

We all use some kind of frame of reference consisting of all the learning we somehow integrated. It’s more than knowing mathematics. We use it to relate to a situation, others, and ourselves. It’s what we use to react to emotions, thoughts, and other events.

It’s what we use to navigate life.

It is constantly updated with our experience and our interpretation of it. That’s how we started into life, and it is a principle that works quite well.

It’s the source of bias, preconceived ideas, habits, judgments, and other automatic reactions.

It’s a mental model. Made to know.

It’s a process that searches for general principles it seeks to confirm.

Luckily, as Leonhard Cohen said “There is a crack, a crack, in everything. That’s how the light gets in.”

Vulnerability, curiosity, and reflection are the tools available to us to see and use the light.

It’s up to us to cultivate them and create the circumstances within which we can do so.