The older I get, the more I realize I don’t know. If this continues, I will realize I know nothing by the time I die. Is this the meaning of wisdom? To know that you know nothing?
Inverse relationship
by Kevin Thom | Sep 7, 2006 | 17 comments
The older I get, the more I realize I don’t know. If this continues, I will realize I know nothing by the time I die. Is this the meaning of wisdom? To know that you know nothing?
You’re bound to get screwed if you compare what you know with what there is to know.
Instead, compare what you know now with what you didnt know yesterday.
your spam checker is oddly appropariate;
“Please add 0 and 0”
I’m with Diny. And would also add, ignorance may be bliss, but aquiring the knowledge to become informed is often more fun than accepting that you are ingnorant.
There is no shame in admitting that the world is more complex than you realized when you were younger. And there is a big difference between being humbled by the univerese of knowledge and being ignorant.
“And there is a big difference between being humbled by the univerese of knowledge and being ignorant.”
Firstly, I am aware there are ‘laws’ that must be followed to keep myself out of jail. BUT, I am ignorant of some of them.
Secondly, I don’t believe we should be humbled by the universe of knowledge that is out there because history and time have shown much of humanity’s knowledge to be inaccurate 😉
Well, your second point is exactly why I think we should be humbled. You just made my point for me 😛
Lol … you want some of THIS?!
ahem … I personally don’t think we should be humbled by our lack of knowledge, nor the acceptance of inaccurate knowledge.
Im not humbled by the lack of knowledge. I’m excited about all there is to know, and being certain and I’ll never run out of things to learn. But humbled? Nope.
The only thing i’m truly humble about is the size and vastness of the universe, especially when looking at a full night sky on a clear night away from city lights.
How excited will you be about all the things you don’t know on the day you die?
Im hoping that on that day, I’ll think of the things I’ve learned and experienced instead on the things I didnt learn and didnt experience. Why? Because thinking of what I didnt do would make everything I’ve done a complete waste.
Plus its just depressive negative thinking, man =P
Then again, we’re at very different ages of our lives and maybe I’ll lose a bit of my possitive outlook in a few years.
well, that’s just what i’m saying. there’s no shame in being humble. it’s not negative to realize that you don’t know a lot of things. that’s life.
Oh I know that there’s no shame, but your first post seemed to give the message of “why bother?”
And while I do agree that its impossible to know everything (Who would want to?), that the more you learn about things, the more you realize you dont know squat, and the negative part comes when you start to see it as a futile effort instead of “I didnt know that yesterday, I know it today; today, I am richer and better than yesterday. I want tomorrow to come so that I can be better than today.”
Its about self-improvement for me, And a very dynamic process because the more I learn, the more my mind changes about things. Things I thought were great, are not, and things I thought were ordinary, are not. And then something might change and I have to revisit it and re-organize my ideas about that particular thing, and so on.
All that does not make me humble towards everything there is to know. Quite frankly, I dont care for half of the things out there. I’d rather know a lot about what I care than a bit about everything, including what I dont care about.
I dont see knowledge as a goal. “By the time I die, I need to know all this.” That adds pressure and takes the fun out of it (for me, at least).
I think you added the “why bother” part on your own. Anyone who knows me knows that continuous self-improvement (kaizen philosophy) is my core value. Learning the meaning and positive value of being humble is something that comes with life experience, and that’s the point I’m trying to make. 😛
Ah ok, then. Its just that when I read “I will realize I know nothing by the time I die. Is this the meaning of wisdom? To know that you know nothing?” sounded very emo-like =P
It only looks that way to someone who’s emo 😛
YOU KNOW NOTHING!
Then I must be dead.