i Do, i Share and i Learn: December 2017

Debbie: "California is where you first published your first guidebook: LA Access. What made you decide to do that at that time?"
Richard: "Like everything else, I moved there. I couldn't find my way around. I couldn't find a good guidebook. So I did one. Nobody asked me to do it. I am not a publisher. The book... each of my project is a roadmap from not knowing to knowing. I didn't know LA. I was living there I couldn't find something that was a good guidebook. I am not trying to do guidebooks. I am not trying to do anything. I am trying to fill in the black hole that's in your stomach of not knowing. Something that I am curious about. I didn't do it for the other people. It seems to help me. What helps me because I am kind of dumb, it helps other people too.

Debbie: "You said that your biggest lesson in life has been understanding of what's it like to not understand."
Richard: "That's it.
Debbie: "and this is with you every minute of the day."
Richard: "absolutely"
Richard:"... he said he suffered from the disease of familiarity"
Debbie: " What's that"
Richard: "That he knows so much about what he is talking about that he didn't understand what it's like not to understand. so he didn't sort of let me in...quite...and most faculty members have that in schools, most people have that when they know something very well, it is very difficult to understand what's like to not know the door way. the threads hold in. and then you never going to understand the subject that they are talking about if you miss those first few steps.
Debbie: "When you said he doen't know how to let you in, what do you mean?"
Richard: "if a person doesn't know how to count, and you are talking about numbers, you din't let him in. It is not an act to try to keep him out, it's just that you don't know that they don't know how to count. and a lot of conversations between people never gets started. because one person dosn't understand what's like to not understand what they are talking about.