Please take a quick look at this movie.

This poor dog is laughable. Not seeing the obvious is always laughable. At least from outside, or in retrospect. The situation is different from the inside and during the action. It is much more serious. In fact, it is this seriousness that makes it miss the obvious. Ok, perhaps being a dog does not help the situation, but this kind of spinning around does happen to humans, too.

"Who must play cannot play," said James Carse in one of my favorite books. He said it in a slightly different context but it also holds true when it comes to us finding a way out of a corner. If we get too serious about the goal we risk missing the paths that are just in front of us. The more serious our state of mind is, the more focused we get. The more focused we get, the more our field of exploration narrows. The result is that whatever is just outside is not even considered.

And how do we decide what is considered and what not? Based on past experiences summarized in the form of assumptions. This is a great mechanism because it helps us deal with crisis situations. Assumptions help us prioritize rapidly by providing us with proven solutions. The more serious the situation, the more important assumptions get, and the more we focus on getting things done via explored paths.

But, it is exactly this mechanism that impedes us from finding new solutions. When assumptions get priority, we walk known paths. Thus, the chances of finding new paths diminishes dramatically.

Sometimes, like in the case of our dog, the situation is actually not that critical and we can have a good laugh at how we did not see what was in front of us. Yet, oftentimes it is important not to get stuck, especially when there actually isn’t any real obstacle.

If we find ourselves running in the same circle for more than two times, it probably means that we should remember that to be able to find something new, we first have to acknowledge the possibility of it. And the first thing in that direction is to get less serious and embrace the promise of a foolish thought.