Mónica Guzmán

Yeah, exactly.

I make the distinction between puzzles and mysteries, which I borrow from author Ian Leslie, who did this really well.

But puzzles are something that feels like you have the shape, you just need to look for the missing pieces.

That's what understanding a puzzle is all about.

You can solve it.

And then a mystery just doesn't work that way at all.

You have no idea if you have the right shape, the right box, the right size.

It's not a matter of finding pieces.

It's a matter of everything you learn sort of opens up new questions.

And when we stereotype or when we flatten or when we become too certain about other people, we're treating people like puzzles.

Oh, I already know because they are X, Y, and Z. They hold this identity and this ideology.

I already know why they believe these things.

All I need to understand is this part.

And I'm going to come up and demand that answer from them.

But that's not how human beings work.

In fact, that's one of the most beautiful things about us is we are extraordinarily deep mysteries.

To try to understand a mystery from a distance is sort of the tragedy of the moment, right?

Where we think, well, it's a lot more comfortable to read a thought piece with some statistics and then make some conclusions about a group of people.

And we want to do that because it is so stressful to stay in some kinds of uncertainty.

It's stressful not to know.