Blind Faith: Forgotten Superpower?

I recently watched a documentary following the lives of an Orthodox Jewish family in London. Whenever the family described a particular ritual they followed, the reporter, an atheist, would ask: “but why?”

Eventually, the family’s 12-year-old son cleared things up for the reporter: “there are no reasons behind some of the rules and rituals we follow. We do it because we have faith.”

“Blind faith?” quipped the reporter.

“Faith is blind.” his mother replied. “We cannot know, we can only believe.”

The family described their daily practices as little leaps of faith, helping them to sustain and strengthen their fundamental beliefs.

The concept of placing our belief in something we do not fully understand is central to religion, but it has a hard time stretching into other parts of life.

“In God we trust: all others must bring data.” declared statistician Edwards Deming.

In the age of AI, it can feel like every “why” has an answer and every answer needs a “why”. It’s not enough to do things because we believe they will turn out for the best, or because we are passionately devoted to them, without a “why” in sight to back us up.

Do we need blind faith?

It’s all well and good to move through life as rational, data-backed beings, yet some of the best breakthrough inventions would never have come to life without the help of a little blind faith. The Wright Brothers’ first sustained powered aircraft flight in 1903 is a classic example where engineering skill must come together with a dose of blind faith: they were entering the unknown.

In a letter to his father and sister, Orville Wright explains they’re in uncharted waters: “Mr. Chanute says that no one before has ever tried to build a machine on such close margins as we have done to our calculations.”

Yet a closer look at the letters reveal an iterative series of experiments that break their blind faith into digestible chunks: “of course we are going to thoroughly test the control of it on the hills before attaching the motor”. “We have been in the air hundreds and hundreds of times”.

Eventually, by December 14th 1903, Wilbur Wright declared in a letter to his family “There is now no question of final success. The strength of the machine is all right, the trouble in the rudder being easily remedied.”

The faith to go a little further each time, focused on the nearest goal, not the furthest, was enough to inch towards certain success.

Emily here — Thanks for reading! I really appreciate you following my work. Curious how this week’s article came to life? Scroll to the end for a note from me.

Take the little leaps

Einstein worked at the Swiss Patent Office for seven years, conducting his experiments on the side. This meant he could take leaps of faith in his experiments without worrying about the pressure of monetising his work. Similarly, children’s author Roald Dahl worked for Shell before writing full-time: security day-to-day allowed him to take risks in his writing.

Society glorifies the big, bold leaps like quitting your job, bungee jumping and “going all-in” because they’re fun to watch, but it’s the little leaps that move us towards our goal.

Most of us aren’t flying planes for the first time or working on world-changing science. But that’s no reason for us to disregard a need for a little extra faith in our direction of travel. How can little leaps of faith can help us in our day-to-day, whatever our goals?

Revisit the Big Goals

First, revisit your big hairy audacious goals and break them into bitesized chunks. A common coaching technique used to move the “coachee” towards action is to ask what the first step towards the goal might be: “what can you do tonight to help you achieve this?”

Breaking down bigger goals into enough little leaps of faith to sustain momentum is a much more successful strategy than fixating on one lofty ambition far in the distance.

Find Your Fun

Next, find fun in the little leaps: if you enjoy the process, the little leaps will mount up and the end goal will move closer with relative ease. For the Wright brothers, the joy of each experiment, and the puzzle of finding out why a given experiment did or didn’t work distracted from the bold long-term goal, and made the journey more satisfying.

Find Your Fans

Lastly, find supporters and accountability partners: the Wright brothers not only had each other, but also friends and family. Immediately after the first try of the power machine on 15th December, Orville Wright telegrammed his father: “power and control ample. Rudder only injured. Success assured. Keep quiet.”

“Keep quiet” is a request to avoid alerting the media: both brothers were adamant that media attention would not only prove a severe distraction, but also that journalists would celebrate their failures, not their successes. A threat to the faith they had placed in their mission, it should be avoided at all costs. The only accountability they needed was from people who truly shared their belief in what they’d set out to achieve.

Whether it’s building a ground-breaking new technology or following the rules and rituals of their community, people take little leaps of faith every day to move them closer to where they want to be. But we often forget about the small iterative steps, focusing only on the big ones. Where could a little blind faith help you take little leaps towards your goal?

Author’s note:

Hi, Emily here.

After an hour and a half of writer’s block on this week’s article, I gave up and ate breakfast, gazing into the depths of my cereal bowl for inspiration. Luckily, an exciting idea stared back at me and this article came to life. 

The highlight was reading the Wright brothers’ letters. Incredible to hear what they were thinking as they tried to bring a world-first invention to life!

 As always, thanks for reading. I also write weekly newsletters — you can get them here. Plus, have a Dad joke.