Yes, and Ignorance is Okay (Until it's Not)

     I'm not sure if I first said it, or if I heard it from somewhere, but I have a favorite saying for sure. "It's okay to be ignorant, but it's not okay to want to stay ignorant." I think maybe the reason I like it so much is because the words ignorant and ignorance have a different meaning than a lot of people realize. To be ignorant is NOT to be dumb, stupid or idiotic. It's simply to not know. If all else is lost on you, please know that it's okay to not know something.

     I tend to use this phrase in political subjects, like if you don't truly understand what a statistic means, but it doesn't fit there exclusively. The situation that continues to come to mind, in light of recent events, is video games. A lot of times, when you try something new, you're not very good at it. You don't have the intricacies of it down at the start; that's only natural. Where you stand is in ignorance, and that's okay.

     I'll give an example of what's happening to me lately. I'm playing quite a bit of Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn (an MMO) lately, and parts of the game rely heavily on teamwork. The first time you run a dungeon (assuming you're new to MMOs, which a surprising number of FFXIV:ARR players are) is terrifying, in most people's experience. You have a role -- a very defined role -- that you're supposed to fill in the party, and because people depend on you to preform that role correctly, it hard to get the image of everyone being upset with you for messing up out of your head.

     Ninety-nine percent of the time, you're perfectly fine. You do your role well enough, and the first dungeon is easy enough for you to get your bearings. There are exceptions though, and it's not having a party member that is a perfectionist; they run with their own groups. The problem only comes up when someone ignores what their party has to say.

     (Not so) Random improvisational acting rule: Say "Yes, and," instead of "Yeah, but..." Everyday life is an improv. If you're living scripted, you're not living. "Yes, and," is your best friend. People have ideas, and ideas need to get out because expression is important. All the same, some things come pre-defined. This is why "Yes, and," is so important. It *accepts* what has been introduced, then adds to it.

     A new friend of mine that I have been playing FFXIV:ARR alongside is having trouble in these areas. He's living in ignorance of how to play the game as a member of a team and refuses to get out of it. I'm pretty sure half of the things he says starts with "yeah, but," and any conversation made in attempt to fix this ends in argument. There's nothing we, the other three team members, can do about it. We just have to deal with his selfish play style and that doesn't make me want to play with him more. I don't want it to be like that.

     Now I think I can fully elaborate on what "It's okay to be ignorant, but it's not okay to want to stay ignorant," means. Like I said earlier, When you first start off, there are things you aren't going to know, but hopefully through ("Yes, and,") communication, you'll start to see why certain things work. You'll understand when your role is to do nothing, when it's to do everything, and when you're okay to do whatever you want. Most importantly, I would hope you don't want to stay as ignorant as when you started out -- that you want to learn and get better. Things are naturally more fun when you're better at them.

There are many reasons why it's not okay to want to stay ignorant. For one thing, it makes it a chore for people to associate with you when you choose to be deaf to reason. On the flip-side, you may be spreading wrong, even bad ideas to other people. You ignorance hurts when you cling to it.