Analogy to the Hermit

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The Hermit and the Specialist have a lot in common. Having mastered traditions and time and space, the hermit has chosen to leave the conventional world behind in search for a new truth - and often that new truth provides a contrast to the approaches you have been using. A master specialist in a field who has been around for more than a generation will have the same attributes of a Hermit, they will be probably bored of conventional ways of doing things and perhaps their obsessions have led them to a reclusive lifestyle.

You know you've met a hermit or a specialist when they are cynical in the face of the status quo. Where the sage like philosopher influence knew how the institution and traditional approaches of your idea spectrum could be used to develop your idea, the Specialist will know how the institution and tradition itself will influence your idea, and be able to suggest work-arounds for new ideas that are not entirely based in a historical perspective like the Philosopher's outlook. 

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Let's demonstrate this with a couple of examples; e.g. with a spectrum of lift in the context of flying the traditional knowledge might all involve traditional interpretations of physics - that is you may have considered all of the ways that your flying idea could experience lift, within the traditionally defined scope of lift. During the 17th century, the time for when we might be imagining concepts of flight, the concept of lift was limited to mechanical pulley systems and physical interactions between 2 objects. To achieve lift, one other physical object must do the lifting. The specialist might be able to point out that this is a limited point of view, and broaden your horizon to a new philosophy to include concepts like self-propelled flight of a bird. 

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A more obvious example is our idea development model itself; conventional wisdom is to build ideas in a business setting relative to the material demands of its end users - rather than looking at the universal principles and functions that should provide more real impact and value. It is the logic of the specialist archetype that helps us relate to a paradigm and philosophy outside of the one that we shackle to ourselves. 

Where is your hermit specialist

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Your hermit specialist could be your own imagination, found during meditation or in isolation. To get space from our own epistemological and ontological biases that will limit our world view to the status quo, we need isolation and distance from those very ontologies and epistemologies that influence us. This can be difficult to do if you are working in an environment where idea development has a strong tradition, e.g. rooted in materialism as the more you work with the idea the more you will be influenced by the traditions that influence the idea.

If you cannot find your hermit specialist internally - which is especially difficult for the demands for fast idea development cycles which doesn't allow us the time and space to distance ourselves from our idea, then seek out another embodiment of the hermit; perhaps they are in the form of a consultant outside your day to day operations, they could be an academic with a radical approach to your idea space, or a philosophy that explores the limitations of the approach you are applying to your idea.

The difficult part is in acknowledging that you will have a bias in the idea development, and there will always be a bias - its implicit in every action. The perfect specialist will take your hand, take you out of your comfort zone, point out the flaws in the conventional way of thinking about the idea and show you a different approach, and this will be difficult. You will know it's happening when you experience resistance to the different approach and have feelings of frustration in response to the critique they present on the way you have approached the idea. This is normal, treat resistance and frustration as a sign that you may have other approaches to consider. 

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If you would like a specialist or hermit, to help you consider new approaches and shine a light on the problems of your own way of thinking about your idea, then look no further; we embodied the hermit specialist with our idea development model, and are always looking for ways to challenge conventional wisdom and the logic of the intuitional ways of thought. Contact us to find out more, or if you just want to get in touch and discuss topics brought up in this article or some of your own ideas; let us know!

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