“INNOVATION CYCLE STEP 1: FARM FOR DISSENT . . . Finally, one VP said to me, “You’re so intense when you believe in something, Reed, that I felt you wouldn’t hear me. I should have laid down on the tracks screaming that I thought it would fail. But I didn’t.”

The culture at Netflix had been sending the message to our people that, despite all our talk about candor, differences of opinion were not always welcome. That’s when we added a new element to our culture. We now say that it is disloyal to Netflix when you disagree with an idea and do not express that disagreement. By withholding your opinion, you are implicitly choosing to not help the company.

The big guys, Neil and Reed, were set against the idea publicly and privately. At most places this would be end of discussion. But Todd Yellin, VP of product, (who worked for Neil) had doubts. He discussed with Zach Schendel (senior user experience researcher) about running some tests to find out if Neil and Reed’s claims were accurate. Zach remembers it like this:

I thought, “Neil and Reed are against this idea. Is it okay to test it out?” At any of my past employers, that would not have been a good move. But the lore at Netflix is all about lower-level employees accomplishing amazing things in the face of hierarchical opposition. With that in mind I went ahead.

My bewitchment with information is different. It is with the mind’s hunger to understand, ‘its desire to know’ as Aristotle said. And that kind of knowing seems to require three things: 1) supplying the facts, 2) seeing the social collective context and 3) dismantling denial.

Importantly, too, information prevents adoration, one of the most dangerous forces against the independent human mind. The choice to see no flaws, the choice to justify every inconsistency or contradiction by saying it isn’t happening or by sewing in an interpretation that allows it to fit the dogma of the adored. We see adoration in the same-stepping rallies of worshippers of any sort: of politicians, fashion, deity, battle, wealth. When reality does not fit the narrative and the narrative is substituting for our own stories of meaning and purpose and significance, we worship. We ignore facts. We term ‘fake’ what is real. We have stopped thinking for ourselves. We have stopped thinking, full stop.

To put its wisdom simply, one could say the fundamental human challenge is this:

It’s hard to learn if you already know.

Unfortunately, we are hardwired to feel as if we know—as if we see reality itself rather than a version of reality filtered through our biases, backgrounds, or expertise. But we can unlearn the habit of knowing and reinvigorate our curiosity.