The newest ideas are found on the other side of perplexity — that place where one’s mind and hands and heart do not know how to move — where groping and guessing and smelling one’s way across the void is the only option.

Perplexity is found by looking too closely at reality and allowing one’s knowledge to develop into its fullest inadequacy. Knowledge bears little scrutiny. If you want your knowledge to break open and reveal the perplexity inside — and there is always perplexity inside! — scrutinize hard and harder.

Perplexity is crossed by facing forward and seeing what is impossibly novel and only  understandable darkly in silhouette — not looking backwards at techniques and concepts and values from the past.