Unlearning what’s holding you back.
We usually treat learning as adding — new facts, new skills, new tools. But the most creative people are just as good at subtracting: unlearning the assumptions that quietly run the show.
This module makes rethinking a regular habit instead of something that only happens in a crisis.
Your hardest-won knowledge can become the very thing that blinds you. Staying creative means revisiting what you “know” and being willing to let some of it go.
Grant describes a rethinking cycle — the opposite of the overconfidence cycle of pride and conviction.
“Thinking again is a skill set, but it’s also a mindset. We already have many of the mental tools we need. We just have to remember to use them.”
— Adam Grant
The rethinking cycle
Humility — knowing what you don’t know
Doubt — questioning your current answer
Curiosity — wondering what else might be true
Discovery — finding a better idea than the one you started with
Innovators hold their first idea loosely — they know the obvious answer is rarely the best one.
“The first idea is rarely the best idea. Falling in love with your first solution is the fastest way to stop improving it.”
— Tom & David Kelley (paraphrased)
Letting go of a good-enough idea is what makes room for a better one.
Csikszentmihalyi’s “autotelic” mind stays curious — it treats every situation as something new to understand rather than something already figured out.
“To the curious mind, even a familiar task holds something new to notice. Curiosity is what keeps expertise from hardening into autopilot.”
— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (paraphrased)
Certainty is where unlearning hides.
Try the idea on, even briefly.
Find someone who sees it differently.
Say ‘I used to think… now I think…’ — and mean it.
Rethinking as a habit rests on four moves:
Lead with humility. Know the edges of what you know.
Let doubt in. Question the answer you’re attached to.
Stay curious. Wonder what else might be true.
Hold ideas loosely. Trade a good idea for a better one.
Write as much or as little as you like — a sentence is plenty.
1. What’s something you were once certain about, then changed your mind on? What shifted it?
2. Where might your expertise be quietly running on autopilot?
3. What’s one thing you “know” about your work that might no longer be true?
Choose one confident belief and deliberately loosen it for a week:
State the belief plainly.
Spend a few days acting as if it might be wrong.
Ask someone who disagrees, or test it.
Update, even slightly. Movement counts.
You’re not aiming to flip every belief — just to keep them flexible enough to grow.
Tracking how your mind has already changed builds trust that it can change again.
Things you once held and later updated.
Evidence, experience, a new perspective?
Something you’re sure of right now.
What would you explore if it weren’t true?
A current certainty — and what you’d explore if you turned out to be wrong about it:
“We learn more from people who challenge our thought process than those who affirm our conclusions.”
— Adam Grant
Individual creativity needs the right environment — here’s how to cultivate it.