the knot

In his book The Knot, Seth Godin explores how we get stuck in situations where two things we want seem to be in conflict. The knot is the problem that keeps us tangled, and the pin is the thing holding it together. Instead of struggling endlessly to untangle everything, the idea is to identify the knot, find the pin, and remove it. I want to explore this idea through our careers, our work, and the way we see ourselves.

Sometimes, we know where we want to go, but we are not sure how to get there. Career changes are not very different. We often wait until we have a clear plan and know exactly how things will work out. But sometimes, we just need to take the next step. The knot is the uncertainty that keeps us from acting, and the pin is our need to know the outcome before we begin.

Another knot is the comfort of familiarity. We may know that a job, a role, or a situation is no longer right for us, yet we continue because we don’t know what comes next. We become comfortable with what we know, even when it no longer makes us happy. We mistake familiarity for stability and end up staying longer than we should. The pin here is the belief that we need a better option before we can leave the current one. Sometimes, we need to create the space for something new before we can see what that something might be.

The third knot is the one we create with our own experience. I have moved from working on video codec algorithms to blockchain, and now to exploring AI and the infrastructure behind it. Each stage has brought new questions and new directions. Yet, there is always a temptation to stay with what we already know and build our identity around what we have done. Our experience should help us move forward, not limit who we can become. The pin is the belief that our future must look like our past. Perhaps the way forward is simpler than we think: identify the knot, find the pin, and remove it. Sometimes, all it takes to move forward is to let go of one thing that has been holding us back.