--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: We all have a blind spot around our…" description: "\"“We all have a blind spot around our privileges shaped exactly like us,” Junot Díaz has said, and it can create blindness to failures all around. 25 It..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/957/sarah-lewis-16690_art_we-all-have-a-blind-spot-around-our-priv_2644925.jpg" --- # We all have a blind spot around our privileges shaped… ![“We all have a blind spot around our privileges shaped exactly like us,” Junot Díaz has said, and it can create blindness to failures all around. 25 It results in the Einstellung effect: the cost of success is that it can block our ability to see when what has worked well in the past might not any…” quote by Sarah Lewis](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/957/sarah-lewis-16690_art_we-all-have-a-blind-spot-around-our-priv_2644925.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/957/sarah-lewis-16690_art_we-all-have-a-blind-spot-around-our-priv_2644925.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/957/sarah-lewis-16690_art_we-all-have-a-blind-spot-around-our-priv_2644925.jpg) > ““We all have a blind spot around our privileges shaped exactly like us,” Junot Díaz has said, and it can create blindness to failures all around. 25 It results in the Einstellung effect: the cost of success is that it can block our ability to see when what has worked well in the past might not any longer. In the face of entrenched failure, there are limits to reason’s ability to offer us a way out. Play helps us to see things anew, as do safe havens. Yet the imagination inspired by an aesthetic encounter can get us to the point of surrender, making way for a new version of ourselves. Our reaction to aesthetic force, more easily than logic, is often how we accept with grace that the ground has shifted beneath our feet. 26 “Art is a journey into the most unknown thing of all—oneself,” architect Louis Kahn stated. “Nobody knows his own frontiers.”” [Sarah Lewis](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sarah-lewis/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. Privilege creates blind spots that prevent recognizing failures; art and imagination can break these patterns and reveal new selves. **In simple terms:** Privilege blinds; art reveals new perspectives. Key Takeaway Use art to challenge assumptions. Themes bias self‑awareness creativity Mood reflective hopeful Type philosophical inspirational When to use this quote - Workshops - diversity training - creative retreats Key Concepts Psychology aesthetic theory Questions to Reflect On - How can you use creativity to expose personal blind spots? - What role does art play in social change? A Different Perspective Art may not reach everyone; change requires action beyond insight. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Art](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/art/) [Failure](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/failure/) [Nature of Beauty](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/nature-of-beauty/) ## Related quotes > [Religion has the capacity to silence critical thinking and create blindness in entire groups of people. 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There was…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/karen-russell/i-took-a-fiction-writing-workshop-my-sophomore-year-at-northwestern/) [Karen Russell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/karen-russell/) > [Visitation Street is urban opera writ large. Gritty and magical, filled with mystery, poetry and pain, Ivy Pochoda’s voice recalls Richard Price, Junot Diaz,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/dennis-lehane/visitation-street-is-urban-opera-writ-large-gritty-and-magical-filled/) [Dennis Lehane](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/dennis-lehane/) > [“People who have had little self-reflection live life in a huge reality blind-spot.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/bryant-mcgill/people-who-have-had-little-self-reflection-live-life-in-a-huge/) [Bryant McGill](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/bryant-mcgill/) > [Religion has become the blind spot of American journalism.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/d-patrick-miller/religion-has-become-the-blind-spot-of-american-journalism/) [D. Patrick Miller](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/d-patrick-miller/) > [There are eyes everywhere. No blind spot left. What shall we dream of when everything becomes visible? We'll dream of being blind.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/paul-virilio/there-are-eyes-everywhere-no-blind-spot-left-what-shall-we-dream-of/) [Paul Virilio](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/paul-virilio/) > [Because your brain uses information from the areas around the blind spot to make a reasonable guess about what the blind spot would see…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/daniel-gilbert/because-your-brain-uses-information-from-the-areas-around-the-blind/) [Daniel Gilbert](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/daniel-gilbert/) > [Life is like driving a car. You have to look left or right before you turn to your path, however you just have to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/simphiwe-ntuli/life-is-like-driving-a-car-you-have-to-look-left-or-right-before-you/) [Simphiwe Ntuli](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/simphiwe-ntuli/) ## More by Sarah Lewis > [“We permit a new future to enter the room with these startling encounters. A young boy from Austin, Texas, Charles Black Jr., stood and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sarah-lewis/we-permit-a-new-future-to-enter-the-room-with-these-startling/) [Sarah Lewis](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sarah-lewis/) > [Success is a label that the world confers on you, but mastery is an ever-onward 'almost.'](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sarah-lewis/success-is-a-label-that-the-world-confers-on-you-but-mastery-is-an/) [Sarah Lewis](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sarah-lewis/) > [“Sociobiologist Edward O. Wilson later said that there should be a “consilience” between art and science. 79 Former NASA astronaut Mae Jemison took selected…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sarah-lewis/sociobiologist-edward-o-wilson-later-said-that-there-should-be-a/) [Sarah Lewis](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sarah-lewis/) > [Shoes are money well spent and a good metaphor for life: everything else in life may be awful but a shoe will cheer me…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sarah-lewis/shoes-are-money-well-spent-and-a-good-metaphor-for-life-everything/) [Sarah Lewis](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sarah-lewis/) > [Mastery is in constantly wanting to close the gap between where you are and where you want to be.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sarah-lewis/mastery-is-in-constantly-wanting-to-close-the-gap-between-where-you/) [Sarah Lewis](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sarah-lewis/) > [A near win shifts our view of the landscape. It can turn future goals, which we tend to envision at a distance, into more…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sarah-lewis/a-near-win-shifts-our-view-of-the-landscape-it-can-turn-future-goals/) [Sarah Lewis](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sarah-lewis/) > [“In one of our conversations, she told me about Finland’s development of sisu, a rough cognate for grit. Etymologically, sisu denotes a person’s viscera,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sarah-lewis/in-one-of-our-conversations-she-told-me-about-finland-s-development/) [Sarah Lewis](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sarah-lewis/) > [“A rise often falls into the blind spot of vision, and so we tell the stories that I have in this book because we…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sarah-lewis/a-rise-often-falls-into-the-blind-spot-of-vision-and-so-we-tell-the/) [Sarah Lewis](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sarah-lewis/) > [“There is no word to describe exactly what the High Line is to the non-architects among us, nor the collective reframing process required to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sarah-lewis/there-is-no-word-to-describe-exactly-what-the-high-line-is-to-the-non/) [Sarah Lewis](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sarah-lewis/) > [Pain is not a punishment. And pleasure is not a reward. You could argue that failure is not punishment and Success is not reward.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sarah-lewis/pain-is-not-a-punishment-and-pleasure-is-not-a-reward-you-could-argue/) [Sarah Lewis](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sarah-lewis/) > [Completion is a goal, but we hope it is never the end.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sarah-lewis/completion-is-a-goal-but-we-hope-it-is-never-the-end/) [Sarah Lewis](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sarah-lewis/) > [“How many movements began when an aesthetic encounter indelibly changed our past perceptions of the world? It was an abolitionist’s print, not logical argument,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sarah-lewis/how-many-movements-began-when-an-aesthetic-encounter-indelibly/) [Sarah Lewis](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sarah-lewis/) > [“If you want to see it well, you must not stand in one place . . . If you’re rooted to a spot, you miss a lot…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sarah-lewis/if-you-want-to-see-it-well-you-must-not-stand-in-one-place-if-you-re/) [Sarah Lewis](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sarah-lewis/) > [“He told his story through autobiographies that garnered him wide acclaim (and a warrant for his life—as we know, he fled to Britain to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sarah-lewis/he-told-his-story-through-autobiographies-that-garnered-him-wide/) [Sarah Lewis](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sarah-lewis/) > [“It was a truth that Leo Tolstoy declaimed a century or so ago: our response to art has the agency to do what “external…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sarah-lewis/it-was-a-truth-that-leo-tolstoy-declaimed-a-century-or-so-ago-our/) [Sarah Lewis](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sarah-lewis/) [Explore all 39 Sarah Lewis quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sarah-lewis/) ## More Art quotes > [True works of art contain their own theory and give us the measurement according to which we should judge them.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/johann-wolfgang-von-goethe/true-works-of-art-contain-their-own-theory-and-give-us-the/) [Johann Wolfgang von Goethe](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/johann-wolfgang-von-goethe/) > [Before Noah, men having only water to drink, could not find the truth. Accordingly...they became abominably wicked, and they were justly exterminated by the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/benjamin-franklin/before-noah-men-having-only-water-to-drink-could-not-find-the-truth/) [Benjamin Franklin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/benjamin-franklin/) > [“Hear the sum of the whole matter in the compass of one brief word — every art possessed by man comes from Prometheus.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/aeschylus/hear-the-sum-of-the-whole-matter-in-the-compass-of-one-brief-word/) [Aeschylus](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/aeschylus/) > [I think most artists feel like they're outside society - no matter how many accolades they receive, or how much money is in your…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/aaron-rose/i-think-most-artists-feel-like-they-re-outside-society-no-matter-how/) [Aaron Rose](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/aaron-rose/) > [The capacity to be puzzled is the premise of all creation, be it in art or in science.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/erich-fromm/the-capacity-to-be-puzzled-is-the-premise-of-all-creation-be-it-in/) [Erich Fromm](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/erich-fromm/) > [That's the great secret of creativity. You treat ideas like cats: you make them follow you.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ray-bradbury/that-s-the-great-secret-of-creativity-you-treat-ideas-like-cats-you/) [Ray Bradbury](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ray-bradbury/) > [“So, really," continued Jacob as if this were perfectly normal to expound on art in these circumstances, "when you think about it, the artists…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/justina-chen-headley/so-really-continued-jacob-as-if-this-were-perfectly-normal-to-expound/) [Justina Chen Headley](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/justina-chen-headley/) > [“There are two options in art; either to adopt philosophical life by dissecting art, or to write your own philosophical life and claim it…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/taf-teh/there-are-two-options-in-art-either-to-adopt-philosophical-life-by/) Taf Teh > [The house has to serve comfort. The work of art is revolutionary; the house is conservative.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/adolf-loos/the-house-has-to-serve-comfort-the-work-of-art-is-revolutionary-the/) [Adolf Loos](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/adolf-loos/) > [During human progress, every science is evolved out of its corresponding art.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/herbert-spencer/during-human-progress-every-science-is-evolved-out-of-its/) [Herbert Spencer](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/herbert-spencer/) > [In literature and art memory is a synonym for invention. It is the life-blood of imagination, which faints and dies when the veins are…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-aris-willmott/in-literature-and-art-memory-is-a-synonym-for-invention-it-is-the/) [Robert Aris Willmott](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-aris-willmott/) > [I think a business guy is different from an artist. They walk different paths. Artists create the best outputs when they're having fun. And…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/g-dragon/i-think-a-business-guy-is-different-from-an-artist-they-walk/) [G-Dragon](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/g-dragon/) > [“The only thing--I tell you this straight from the heart--that disgusts me in Salzburg is that one can't have any proper social intercourse with…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wolfgang-amadeus-mozart/the-only-thing-i-tell-you-this-straight-from-the-heart-that-disgusts/) [Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/wolfgang-amadeus-mozart/) > [The sublime in art is the attempt to express the infinite without finding in the realm of phenomena any object which proves itself fitting…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/georg-wilhelm-friedrich-hegel/the-sublime-in-art-is-the-attempt-to-express-the-infinite-without/) [Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/georg-wilhelm-friedrich-hegel/) > [Art isn't done to decorate apartments, but to wage war against the enemy.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pablo-picasso/art-isn-t-done-to-decorate-apartments-but-to-wage-war-against-the/) [Pablo Picasso](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pablo-picasso/) [Browse all 48,643 Art quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/art/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“We all have a blind spot around our privileges shaped exactly like us,” Junot Díaz has said, and it can create blindness to failures all around. 25 It results in the Einstellung effect: the cost of success is that it can block our ability to see when what has worked well in the past might not any longer. 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