Week 2: Reading The Art of Possibility

Image Courtesy of Microsoft Clip Art Archive

To be honest I  am still unpacking this week's reading in my head, trying to assimilate it with my own philosophical view of life, the universe, and everything. (Which is not copyrighted because it is a title.)   The underlying gist of the Art of Possibility, is that we are the creators of our own lives and as creators we need to make sure that we are constantly thinking outside the box of our own assumptions and that we are not "painting ourselves into a corner."
In this week's readingt the author's discuss three concepts, that will assist the reader in finding their own way out of the corner/box. They are: It's All Invented, Stepping Into a Universe of Possibility, and Everyone Gets an A. Of these three concepts I had the most difficulty with the last one, as I read it, because I believe in holding people accountable for their actions, and if you are giving people an A it seems like you are giving them carte blanche. However as I read the chapter I came to understand that giving someone an A does not mean you are giving them carte blanche, it means that no matter what difficulties you might have with them that you always do your best to work with them and understand their point of view.

In general I agree with a lot of what Benjamin Zander, and Rosamund Stone Zander discuss in The Art of Possibility. I am a firm believer in the benefits of meta-cognition, or thinking about thinking for those of you who don't dig five dollar words. I am specifically talking about thinking about the way that  you think about things, which can be quite difficult. I would like to think that I am more often successful than not, but it is hard to rate ones own ability at being objective.