Ah yes the paradox of knowledge. The more you learn, the more you learn how much more there is to learn
Intellectual curiosity is the true barometer; you either thirst to know more, or you’re content with ignorance.
Eventually you realize you forget almost as much as you learn, it’s like a bilge pump in a sinking boat. Then you focus on what you want to remember and come to acceptance with that.
You have to keep going through rehearsal of that old information to keep it from fading. The hard part is stacking new layers on the old layers.
I know way too much about the bronze age and not in a haha Ea-Nasir way but in a I have the major trade routes of the era memorized sort of way. The only official education I have is a high school diploma that even then I probably shouldn’t have gotten since I failed math outright.
There is a third way!
You thirst to know more but have a soul crushing deficit of self esteem and truly believe you’re incapable of anything more than menial labor. You remain with your thirst, not content with your ignorance, but unable to overcome the self image of “absolute moron with no place in the scientific community who must be narcissistic for even thinking he could be” and so you grow to hate yourself even more because of it!
…Err… Or so my friend says.
You don’t have to go to higher education to pursue knowledge! We have more knowledge available to us freely than any other time on Earth!
And for that matter, you don’t even have to pursue knowledge that will help you make money!
Taking a deep dive in some hobbies using free knowledge could very well enhance your life better than getting the masters degree and the promotion.
I was arguing with a engineer two weeks ago about systems. I never met him before. But he had a few drinks and interrupted our conversation. And I nearly lost my shit because of how confident this guy was speaking, saying obvious things and being vague, while not saying anything at all. Like, “This system isn’t good at all! We should all follow Clean Code principles!”
Then someone pulled me aside and said, “Go easy on the guy. He’s only been in the industry for a year.”
And I did feel bad. But also like, my dude… You are going to wake up to realizing you know nothing about everything.
You are going to wake up to realizing you know nothing about everything.
I wish I had your optimism about humanity.
Everyone is just making it up as we go along.
Be skeptical of anyone who claims they have the answer.
I know you’re being cheeky, but we did get an answer to what the Ultimate Question was…
spoiler
The Ultimate Question “What do you get when you multiply six by nine” is found by Arthur Dent and Ford Prefect in The Restaurant at the End of the Universe.
I think it’s a general thing with highly capable persons in expert and highly intellectual domains that eventually you kinda figure out what Socrates actually meant with “All I know is that I know nothing”
I feel like that sentiment is easily reached by anyone who is curious and likes to learns, so a lot of people.
