The Other Lesson to be Learnt

Back in 1922, the 23 year old Ernest Hemmingway, a then unknown unpublished writer, asked his wife, Elizabeth Hadley Richardson, to join him in Lausanne. For reasons unknown, his wife packed all his writings into a suitcase and brought it along. Possibly because she was sick, or maybe in a hurry, she packed everything: originals, and carbon copies. At the station, she left the bags unattended to buy something. When she returned, the bags were gone… and so too were Hemmingway’s writings. All his works were lost.

If asked for the learnings from this incident, most of us would list what we could learn from Hemmingway: not give up, resilience, picking oneself up, continue doing what one had been trying… you get the idea.

And we miss the other side, writes Shane Parrish:

“But almost everyone misses the lessons—hiding in plain sight—offered by Hadley. And when it comes to avoiding catastrophic errors, we should pay close attention.”

The lesson from Hadley is subtle, not the trivially obvious one (do not leave your things unattended). But before we get to that, let Parrish define “stupidity”, since he uses it later to refer to something different from the usual meaning:

“Stupidity is not the opposite of intelligence. My friend Adam Robinson has perhaps the best definition of stupidity I’ve come across, defining it as the overlooking or dismissing of conspicuously crucial information.”

With the above definition, we begin to note certain attributes of stupidity:

-          It’s easier to spot in others than ourselves;

-          It’s easier to spot “the farther we are from the act”;

-          It’s hard to see in real-time, often becoming apparent only after the outcome is known.

Ok, now for the missed lesson to be learnt from Hadley. It’s the awareness that if:

-          One is outside our “normal environment”;

-          In a hurry;

-          Not well;

then the odds of an act of stupidity increase.

And the last point is to not gloss over the catastrophic loss here, hiding it under clichés like “It was probably for the best” or “It gave Hemmingway a reset to come up with greater things” or “It worked out well in the end”. Because:

“Only the benefit of hindsight gives this episode a decent ending, something that is no guarantee for most stupid decisions.”