This We Know
Every once in a while I even surprise myself. None more so than when on holiday recently I wrote a whole book (admittedly a short one) that I had absolutely no intention in writing.
This We Know is an exploration into what we know and what we don’t. Furthermore, it explores how we can go about not only gaining new knowledge but how to define our own reality.
It didn’t take long to write; it doesn’t take long to read – the aim though is that it will change your world and the world around you for ever.
I started writing the book on the 3rd September and thanks to CompletelyNovel and Vook, it was published on the 18th September – and available worldwide by the 30th September.
“I downloaded this book yesterday on my iPad and have read it twice. An extraordinary book that takes us on a journey of what as a society we ‘need to know’. The postscript gave me goosebumps of excitement. For me it sets out a vision of what we could be as a society if we as individuals let go of our ego. It is a manifesto for our future. Like any great book it asks big questions, pokes our thoughts and tramples on our preconceived beliefs about humanity. It transported me back to being a child reading Arthur C Clarke and mind expanding possibilities. Tom Evans is a visionary and I hope that everyone jumps on board the party in the sky.” – Dr Linda Mallory, Founder of The Why Parent
“Wow! Tom Evans the wizard has done it again! I am half way through his latest book, and even though I probably could have gone through the whole thing in about 30min, I am stopping, pondering, loving it. It is simple, factual yet provoking. Chapter 10 is soooo spot on! As a scientist myself, it triggers memories of my times in research labs when I use to think to myself what’s the point of this since just imagining the results I want will make them happen. So cool to see a very wise man share that very thinking. Highly highly recommended!” – Dr Claire Gaudry, Author of The Power of True Learning
The book is available from all the usual outlets …
Get it in print direct from the publisher, CompletelyNovel
Kindle via Amazon.co.uk
Creativity Blocks #003: Fear of the Unknown
It’s natural for us to fear the unknown. Like all fears, this can start at an early age and remain with us for most of our lives.
When it comes to embarking on a creative project – or specifically not-embarking on a creative project – it can be somewhat debilitating.
The signs that this is happening in your life are:
- You are a bit of a control freak and won’t start working until you know exactly each step of the way
- You spend more time planning than doing
- When you start creating, doubts about your ability start to sneak in which you use as excuses to stop
To add more complexity and confusion, there are actually classes of unknown-ness.
There’s obviously the stuff we know we know – the Known Knowns – at least that is until we find out whatever we thought we knew, we didn’t know that well after all.
There’s stuff we know we don’t know – the Known Unknowns – for example, for writers, who is going to publish our bestseller.
There’s a weird category of Unknown Knowns – these are things we know but didn’t know we knew. I love it when authors are actually quite surprised that people like reading their stuff. They were just not be quite aware of it.
Finally there are the Unknown Unknowns – these are the bête noires to creatives – these are the demons that can stop us in our tracks.
Strategies for Getting to Know the Unknowns
1. Just accept we don’t have to know everything and getting to know things, make mistakes is part of the rich tapestry of life
2. Remind yourself that not trying is failure and giving it a go is success
3. Know that all you need to know is to know how to find out someone who does know
4. Learn how to use boolean searches on Google, Twitter and Wikipedia – and if you don’t know what a boolean search is or why they are useful just click here – take this as a tip from a person who knows
5. Use Cross Crawling and Mind Mapping to suppress the ‘critical’ left brain
6. Write down three things you think you know and three things you think you don’t know – then have a think about them.
7. Learn something new every day, no matter how small – for example, I subscribe to the Words for the Day from Dictionary.com and Visual Thesaurus so each day I improve my vocabulary … details on this blog