The Creative Embrace of Uncertainty: In Conversation with Warren Lester

Talking with Warren was a great reminder to chase creativity everyday. Warren, an engineer, a human centered design enthusiast, and one of my dearest friends, was kind enough to sit down with me and chat about how he makes meaning in his life. Our conversation began with Warren sharing his take on his story and evolved into a discussion of the interconnectedness of spirituality and creativity.

When Warren first endeavored to share his story, he honestly responded that he is still trying to craft an answer to that question. Of course, Warren shared a few events that have happened in his life so far, but he emphasized how his life journey is certainly far from over and he wants to live his life in such a way that his story is a continuing exploration and not a stagnant or linear path forward. His response was unique to any other of the responses I’ve gotten so far, specifically in that it focused on looking to the future, not just reflecting on the past. I think Warren’s response can serve as a reminder for all of us to approach our story as an ongoing creation as opposed to a finished product.

While we are moving forward in our story, and growing through our progress, it is also important to honor where we are right now. It is impossible to move forward if you don’t know where you are starting from. By reflecting on where we’ve been, and our current positionality, we can identify the key areas we want to grow and develop. If you are reading this, and realizing you may not have a great feel of where you currently are, try sitting down and actually writing out your answer to the question I ask in every podcast: what is your story? You can start from any point in time, and it doesn’t have to be linear or comprehensive, but just beginning to put pen to paper will help you reflect on your current condition.

Further on Warren sharing some aspects of his story, we explored the saying, “Jack of all trades, master of none.” I recently learned that, like many other sayings and idioms, the entirety of the saying has been shortened as it has been repeated throughout history. The full saying is actually, “Jack of all trades, master of none. But a master of many is better than one.” Warren shared that he has always been an extremely well-rounded person and that narrowing down his interests to one point has been extremely taxing. This is a very common experience, especially as we begin to grow up and consider higher education post-high school. Not everyone chooses that path, but if you do, you are asked to narrow your interests and specialties down to one, “major.” This process, potentially inadvertently, discounts the variation and diversity of experience that we have had thus far in life. 

Whether you choose to pursue higher education or not, I want to encourage you to continue your exploration of seemingly disparate interests. Instead of eliminating your commitments until you are down to one main one, try to find the similarity between each of the things that you are drawn to and use that intersection as the foundation of your future. Asw we grow up, and prepare for the adult world, we are often told (in not so many words) to conform to a traditionalist model of living, but hopefully you can find a way to creatively imbue each moment with meaning that you personally make.

Warren and I furthered our discussion by talking about human centered design and design thinking. Warren has had plenty of experience in assistive technology, but he also opened up about how design thinking has been instrumental in other aspects of his life as well. Human centered design is often reduced to the engineering and business worlds, but truly, it can be used in any situation where there is a human being on the other side of what you are trying to accomplish (and that human being can be yourself). Warren shared how important trying things out has been for him, in both his personal and professional lives. This iterative process, Warren explained, helps to gain experience and feedback in order to better refine who we are, how we live, and how we want to grow. By trying out different professional, spiritual, physical, and social experiences, we can get a better look at how that might factor into the way we want to make meaning in our life. If something calls to you, don’t ignore it; just try it out!

The last thing that I want to touch on is the way Warren embraces uncertainty. Embracing uncertainty has become a practice for Warren, and from what he shared, has opened up innumerous ways of making his life more meaningful. Not only does Warren actively try out different things to help himself grow, but he also tackles the uncertainty of the everyday in his personal, professional, and spiritual lives by trying new things. This exploratory process reflects his original statement about his ongoing, evolving story and how embracing the unknown can help us each find a bit more meaning within that unknown.

I hope you all enjoyed this conversation as much as I did! Warren is such a wonderful example of living an exploratory life in the midst of uncertainty. I hope listening to Warren gives you some confidence to tackle the unknown with creativity and joy. If you want more content, subscribe to Making Meaning on Spotify or Apple Podcasts, and subscribe to the blog so you never miss a post! If you want to join the conversation, follow us on Instagram @thecoherecollective, our Facebook page, or our LinkedIn profile and leave a comment sharing your thoughts on this episode.

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Reese, Founder

The Cohere Collective