The wasp that doesn’t know

“From an aerodynamic point of view, a wasp shouldn’t fly. But it doesn’t know that, so it flies anyway.” — Mary Kay Ash

I read this sentence at the beginning of the week and it piqued my curiosity. So I did some research into how wasps actually manage, aerodynamically. It turns out that with their small wings and relatively large bodies, it is serious mechanical power, beyond ordinary aerodynamics, that keeps them in the air.

So the science is fine. The wasp is not breaking any rules.

But the sentence stayed with me for a different reason. Beyond the science, is there a limiting effect to knowing something?

Does knowledge hold us back? In which situations does what we know turn into a misconception: a reason not to try, a map that stops us from walking somewhere new?

I don’t have a neat answer. But I suspect most of us are grounded less by our wings than by what we think we know about them.

Düşün taşın, as we say in Turkish. Think it over.