Understanding and Getting Over the Mount Stupid

One of the things we, as founders have in common is a drive to acquire knowledge. We are curious about everything happening around our product/service and our industry. Even your role demands you to learn about the strategical, technical and behavioural aspects of your business.

And if you're like me, chances are you are curious about a lot of areas that may not directly relate to your business but help you grow as an individual.

I recently came across a concept called "The Mount Stupid". I am not sure of its origin, but the depth of it fascinated me. Have a look:

To put things into perspective, mount stupid lays down the journey one goes through while they're learning something new. The X-Axis shows the depth of knowledge you have on a topic, and on the Y-Axis, you have your audacity to speak on that topic.

When you start on the journey to learn something, you are excited about your newfound knowledge and you're often vocal about the topic. You have pretty strong beliefs on the topic and most of us get into the trap of thinking "I know everything".

It is only when you gain a better understanding, and acquire an in-depth knowledge of the topic, that you understand the nuances and gaps in your beliefs.

The wisest people out there often have non-concrete beliefs on the topics they don't know much about. And the ones on the mount stupid can be found to be opinionated and strong-worded about every little thing they know.

We all have been on the Mount Stupid.

You, me, each one of us has had beliefs that we thought were the only reality. As we dig deeper into knowing about things we want to know, the slope slowly goes down and eventually rises again when you're sure of the intricacies of your knowledge system and accept what you know and what you don't!

Did the concept resonate with you?

Would love to know your thoughts!