The Creative Contrarian

Wise Fool Strategy # 9Look for Ambiguity

“The greater the ambiguity, the greater the pleasure.”

— Milan Kundera, Czech Writer

What do the following (two jokes, a country music lyric, and an advertising slogan for a mattress company) have in common?

• “I was wondering why the ball was getting bigger, and then it hit me.”
• “Think glass coffins will be successful? Remains to be seen.”
• “If I said you had a beautiful body, would you hold it against me?”
• “For the rest of your life.”

They all display ambiguity. Each provides us with words or phrases that can be intepreted in more than one way. In the first joke, “it hit me” refers to both the ball's collision and also the illuminative “aha moment.” “Remains to be seen” in the second one refers to both uncertainty and a coffin feature. The Bellamy Brothers' country song lyric suggests both a proposition and a grievance. In the Sleepy Mattress tagline, “the rest of your life” promises both comfort and a durable quality product. When we discover the ambiguity in each of them, it's like getting a bonus “huzzah” after realizing the extra meaning.

The Wise Fool believes that we are “prisoners of familiarity” for much of our daily life. By that he means the more often we do something in a particular way, the more difficult it is for us to think about doing it in any other way. We get accustomed to thinking about things in only limited, ...