I say explore because true unknowables cannot always be solved. There’s not always an answer to find. Instead we explore them. We experiment in order to learn.
Unknowables are things that nobody knows. No amount of research will lead you to an answer. True unknowables are like pristine snow sheets, free from the footprints of those that have come before.
Henry Ford once famously said:
If I had asked my customers what they wanted they would have said a faster horse.
He didn’t know that customers would want to buy cars. Nobody had ever tried to sell cars to the people he was targeting before. It was an unknowable. Henry Ford pushed ahead because he believed that everyone would want to own a car one day. He explored the unknowable, and on this occasion he found an answer. They really wanted cars.
Unknowables come up a lot in business. Especially if you are at a company that is truly innovating. If you’re doing something new you’re going to come up against challenges that nobody has had to deal with before. Don’t worry about finding the ”˜right’ answer. Just explore the unknowable. You might find a solution, or you might not. It doesn’t really matter that much. The value isn’t in the end result, it’s in the journey you took to get there.