On Clarity

I wish I came across more essays that were as simple, succinct and to the point as Bryn Jackson’s on clarity.

Clarity may be like a Rubik’s cube that you’re trying to complete as the colors on each square are slowly shifting. The game never ends.

I have experienced burnout in the same manner that Bryn describes: relentless, aimless action without clarity of purpose, so this topic is of personal interest to me. I worked for over two years without it while building Domino and I craved it every day. A lack of clarity leads to a lack of certainty and then to helplessness and a sense of despair. Unfortunately, I misdiagnosed the source of my struggle and so I could never find the clarity that I craved.

This is an initial attempt - and a work in progress - to distill his ideas, and mine, into a concise approach to finding and leveraging clarity in daily living:

1. Clarity gives context to our actions: “I am acting, because …”

2. Clarity shapes our actions towards achieving a goal: “I am acting, in order to achieve …”

3. Action without clarity lacks direction: “I am acting, because … ??”

4. Clarity emerges through questions.

5. Your questions can be shaped through experience, intentionality, feedback and iteration.

6. The context within which you find clarity is always changing.

7. Clarity is impossible without honesty.