Johannes Kepler was obsessed with divine geometry. God had created the perfect world. He had an epiphany one day: 

• There are 6 planets*: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn
• There are 5 perfect Platonic solid geometrical shapes: Octahedron, Icosahedron, Dodecahedron, Tetrahedron, Cube

(*Other planets were not known during Kepler’s time.)

What if the space between each planet’s orbit was shaped by one of Universe’s five perfect geometric solids? What if God had nested Geometry into the Heavens?

Kepler was excited. He thought he had found the keys to one of Universe’s mysteries. He spent years refining his idea, trying to make it match the observations. But it never quite fit.

There was a tiny mismatch between where Mars was predicted to be and where it actually appeared. How tiny? About 8 minutes of arc. Which is about 0.133 degrees out of 360.

“It is not permissible to ignore these 8 minutes of arc.” – Johannes Kepler

Most people would double down on their elegant theory if the error was so tiny. But not Kepler.

Indeed that is what has happened throughout history:

Ptolemy first came up with the idea that Earth was the center of the Universe.

And everything rotated around us. When observations didn’t match, and Mars and Venus sometimes moved backwards – the idea of epicycles was introduced to fix it: a smaller circle in a bigger circular orbit. When that still didn’t fit the observation, more epicycles were added!

Copernicus believed that God could not create such a complicated Universe. 

The Universe needs to be mathematically elegant. That led him to the idea that everything revolved around the Sun in perfect circles. His model used simpler geometry and explained retrograde motion, but the observations still didn’t match.

Copernicus didn’t publish his idea for 30 years. And because the numbers didn’t line up well, his model remained inaccurate. And mostly ignored for nearly a century.

Tycho Brahe tried to fix it with a bizarre mix of ideas.

Brahe came up with the idea that the Sun revolved around the Earth, and every other planet revolved around the Sun! Brahe was one of the most accurate data collectors before the era of telescopes. There was no astronomer better than him. But he didn’t budge even when his own data did not fit his model.

Kepler was Brahe’s assistant and he relied on Brahe’s data. When Copernicus’s circular orbit didn’t fit the data, and Brahe’s model did not fit, he came up with the unique idea of perfect Platonic solid shapes. It could have been very easy for him to double down on his model as well – just like his genius predecessors. But thankfully he didn’t.

Kepler could give up on his precious idea when others would have doubled down. And that’s because Kepler had a good handle on his ego. It wasn’t the universe’s job to fit his theory. It was his job to listen to the Universe.

Ego is the enemy.

Everyone wants to feel like “I am right.” When contradictions arise, we feel that it’s a personal threat. And we double down and fight back despite all the evidence to the contrary. That’s because we have big egos. But what does ego even mean?

Ego means self centeredness. When you put yourself as the center of the Universe. And there is a psychological reason for this: since birth, we have only seen the world from our own vantage point.

For centuries, we believed the Earth was the center. Because being the center means we matter. It’s emotionally comforting. Similarly, having an ego is emotionally comforting. It makes us feel like we matter, that we are in control.

It is very unsettling to think otherwise. But Kepler managed to put aside his ego. He was ok being unsettled. He could sit with the discomfort.

Perspective is the antidote.

Ego can only be reduced when you look at things not from yourself, but from another perspective.

There is a cognitive shift that happens to astronauts when they go in space. They call it the overview effect. Their whole worldview changes when they see the small blue planet floating in the sea of black void!

You go to space thinking you are important. You look back at Earth and realize you’re not the center!

“When we originally went to the Moon… we thought we were going to discover the Moon. What we really discovered was the Earth.” – Bill Anders

It’s this awe that can kill the ego. When you feel like you are a part of something bigger, shift happens.

Kepler could discard his idea because he believed he was working for a bigger power. While he believed that God was Geometry, he believed even more strongly that God was Truth. He was more loyal to understanding God’s plans than being right.

By anchoring himself to a higher power, Kepler could cultivate a perspective where he was a part of a bigger picture. He could see that he was just a part of the orchestra and his job was to understand the music. And while it took him 4 years to give up on his idea as well, he could self correct.

That’s how he finally came to the breakthrough: that the planet’s orbits are elliptical and not circular! Suddenly everything fit! Kepler made the solar system predictable!

Action Summary:

• Ego is the enemy. Ego means being self centered. To reduce your ego, you need to shift your perspective.

• Awe shrinks the self. Meditate on how you are a small part of a bigger plan, a bigger system. Chase a purpose much bigger than yourself.

• Be more loyal to understanding than to being right. Chase different points of view, outside of your centered self.