The Blog

#206: Step Outside To Think Differently

Lots of people think they know who said, “We don’t know who discovered water, but we know it wasn’t a fish.” Well, lot’s of people could be wrong.

Was it Marshall McLuhan? James Coleman? John Culkin? Someone else? What about Albert Einstein? Or was it Miss Anonymous?

Actually, it was all the above.

(For the record, it seems the first formal citation was in 1909 in a book called “Every-Day Japan.”)


Hey, you! Step outside for a minute.

No. This is not an invitation to fight. It is an invitation to think, to think differently.

If you stay inside all the time, then you won’t be able to think from the outside looking in. As you know, things often only make sense if you consider them from a distance. You can only see patterns once you have the perspective of detachment. It’s like suddenly seeing the forest because you’ve stepped back far enough to lose sight of the individual trees.

“Step outside what?” you may well ask. Outside your normal environment, your habitual way of thinking, seeing, and believing. Specifically, outside what you so readily take for granted.

Remember this: we don’t know who discovered water, but we know it wasn’t a fish. For the same reason, you won’t really see something that you think is obvious.

Until you step away from it.


Welcome to my side of the nonsense divide.