Prime (noun)
the state or time of greatest vigour or success in a person’s life.

Hi, I’m Jason. This is where I share openly about the challenges, insights and lessons from my own journey. My hope is that these thoughts spark reflections that help you navigate your own path to living better and leading better. 

Jason Leavy
Founder

Prime Perspective:
Reflections on Leadership and Growth

I’m writing this at 38,000 feet on my way back to London and I’ve just spent the past 30 minutes listening to a podcast featuring Charan Ranganath, the Director of the Dynamic Memory Lab in Los Angeles and the author of ‘Why We Remember’. 

He grabbed my attention with his assertion that memory is about the future, not the past, and as he expanded on this, I decided to change my own future and scrapped the Prime Perspective I’d already drafted in favour of sharing his insights, as I think they’re a powerful stimulus for growth. 

His provocative thinking about memory being a thing of the future is grounded in his research that proves a huge amount of our memories are actually discarded within 24 hours – the exceptions happen where our brains store those things that will be of value in the future. 

So follow that to its logical conclusion, and suddenly the power of a curious mindset becomes all too clear.

Why a Curious Mindset Is Critical

Essentially our brains are prediction machines and curiosity is the power we use to feed them the data they need to see new possibilities.

Yet the paradox is that “I don't know” is often seen as ignorance rather than healthy enquiry in leadership circles. We feel under pressure to have all the answers, about appearing knowledgeable, with being the expert who knows.

It’s why many of us are tempted to dial down that same curious mindset that secured our success in the first place and instead seek refuge in the false safety net of certainty. 

By contrast, look at the greats of our times – entrepreneurs, scientists, athletes, inventors – the one common trait is the fact their insatiable curiosity powered them to those heights.

They’ve all been obsessed with the ‘how’ and the ‘why’, whether it's Jensen Huang exploring what else can graphics chips do beyond gaming or Simone Biles questioning how she can push gymnastics further.

As Ranganath states in the interview, we should be a lot more interested in questions rather than answers as if you don’t know the answer yet, you’ll be far better at remembering it if you seek it out.

The Expertise Trap 

So why do our horizons tend to narrow as we progress? As always, science can shed light on this. 

As we develop expertise in any domain, our brains create increasingly efficient neural pathways. This is called ‘cognitive efficiency’ and it's generally a good thing as it allows us to make faster, better decisions based on pattern recognition.

But the catch is that those same efficient pathways can become cognitive ruts. When your brain has a well-worn path to a solution, it stops looking for alternative routes. You become incredibly good at solving known problems while losing the ability to see unknown possibilities.

Researchers call this the ‘expertise trap’ –  the more we know about how things work, the harder it becomes to imagine how they could work differently.

Monk and author Shunryu Suzuki wrote: "In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert's mind there are few."

This isn't an argument against expertise – it's a call to use it as a foundation, rather than letting it become a cage. Think beginner's mindset with expert-level skill – that’s the winning combination.

A Call To Action

I feel so strongly about this simply because I fell into this trap. Or rather, I slipped into it, as these things don’t happen overnight, they creep up on you.

I was still leading, I was still training, I was still delivering…but I was stuck in the same patterns, cementing myself deeper rather than exploring further. On autopilot rather than being an adventurer.

The decision to leave corporate life and start Prime Performance Labs was, at its core, about reclaiming my curiosity. About choosing questions over certainty.

What I love about my life right now is that I’m learning and growing every day and that makes me feel rich in a way money will never be able to replicate. 

I want the same for you. Whatever that looks like – don't let your expertise become your ceiling. Don't let success shrink your world.

Start asking questions again and exploring this crazy, beautiful, diverse world in all its riches. All the data shows you’ll benefit from it – mentally, physically, spiritually. 

And if that doesn’t convince you, it’s worth noting that in a world increasingly obsessed with longevity, research published in Psychology and Aging found that older adults with higher curiosity levels had significantly lower mortality rates, suggesting that maintaining a curious mindset may literally help you live longer.

Start with ‘why’ tomorrow and see where it takes you…