December 27, 2024. What If Everything You Knew Was Wrong?.

Here's a thought experiment for you: What if everything you knew - everything you were absolutely certain about - turned out to be wrong? Not just slightly off, but fundamentally, completely wrong?

Take gravity, for instance. For centuries, we understood it through Newton's laws. Then Einstein came along and showed us that gravity isn't really a force at all - it's the curvature of spacetime. Newton wasn't exactly wrong, but his understanding was incomplete. And here's the kicker: Einstein's theory might also be incomplete. That's the beauty and terror of knowledge - it evolves.

This isn't just about physics. Think about how we build houses, something humans have been doing for thousands of years. We have established principles: foundations need to be solid, walls need to bear weight, roofs need to keep out rain. These aren't wrong - they're proven, tested, reliable. But what if our entire approach to housing is just one possibility among many?

What if, instead of building foundations the way we always have, we completely reimagined what a foundation could be? I'm not talking about small improvements - I'm talking about fundamental reimagining. Maybe the future of housing isn't about building stronger foundations, but about creating structures that don't need traditional foundations at all. Sounds crazy? Well, so did the idea of flying machines to people who'd spent their lives firmly on the ground.

Here's what I've learned while building Abdi & Brothers Company: deep knowledge is crucial, but it can also be a cage. When you spend years learning how something works, you naturally develop a resistance to changing it. It's not stubbornness - it's human nature. We invest time, energy, and identity into our knowledge. Questioning it feels like questioning ourselves.

But here's the paradox: to truly innovate, you need both deep knowledge and the willingness to question everything you know. You need to understand the rules deeply enough to know why they exist, and then have the courage to ask: "But what if there's another way?"

Think about the smartphone. Before 2007, everyone 'knew' what a phone should be. It needed physical buttons, a small screen, good battery life. Then Apple came along and said, "What if everything we know about phones is wrong?" They didn't just improve the existing model - they fundamentally reimagined what a phone could be. This wasn't about destroying what came before; it was about transforming it into something better.

The key is understanding that questioning established knowledge isn't about disrespect. When I look at existing systems - whether in education, technology, or business - I'm not thinking, "These are wrong." I'm thinking, "These worked for their time, but what if there's more?" It's like standing on the shoulders of giants and asking, "What do we see from up here that they couldn't see from the ground?"

This mindset requires both humility and audacity. Humility to acknowledge that our current understanding might be incomplete or wrong. Audacity to imagine and pursue alternatives, even when everyone else thinks we're crazy. It's about having the knowledge to understand why things are the way they are, and the courage to ask if they could be different.

To innovate isn't to destroy - it's to transform. It's about taking what we know, understanding it deeply, and then being brave enough to imagine beyond it. Sometimes, this means questioning our most basic assumptions. Sometimes, it means looking at a perfectly good foundation and asking, "But what if we could build something better?"

So here's my challenge to you: Take something you know, something you're absolutely certain about. Now ask yourself: What if it's wrong? Not slightly wrong, but fundamentally wrong? What if there's a completely different way to think about it? What if everything you know is just one possibility among many?

Because maybe, 

just maybe, 

the next big innovation isn't about building on what we know. 

Maybe it's about daring to imagine what we don't know yet.

After all, every revolutionary idea in history started with someone asking: "What if everything we know is wrong?"