Wait! Wait! Don’t Tell Me!
Knowledge is Power
~Sir Francis Bacon
It was while Walking to Cocoa Wah-Wah, a restaurant nearby, to meet Sarah and Lara for an early supper, that I fortuitously spotted a discarded piece of scrunched up paper. Curious, I cracked my knees as I bent down and picked it up. I eagerly unfurled my discovery, which turned out to be a sheet of music, composed by a composer with whom I wasn’t familiar (i.e. he/she wasn’t Beethoven). My eyes were met with baffling squiggles, the melody beneath trapped by my complete lack of understanding. I carefully folded it, and tucked in the inside pocket of my jacket.
Tim Ferriss, author of the Four Hour Work Week, and host of the appropriately named Tim Ferriss Show, has a strict opinion on how information should be consumed. The idea of ‘Just in Time’ information versus ‘Just in Case’ information has cropped up in many podcasts, and is a major theme in his book. Ferriss argues for the former; that, especially through social media, it’s only too easy to overwhelm ourselves with pointless information. One must, he advises, take great care in selecting which sources of information be allowed into one’s mind. I heartily agree; my ease of access to information is permissive of all sorts of mental masturbation, a great deal of which I could do without.
Another hero (and Tim, in fact) of mine, however, advocates the opposite. Tim Minchin is an Australian comedian, author, playwright and musician, whom I first encountered when I watched his UWA commencement address, on YouTube. I found the speech, in which he lays out his Nine Life Lessons, to be incredible. Each outlined ‘lesson’ deserves several essays’ worth of exploration, so I shall mention only one. Minchin advocates the idea of being ‘Micro Ambitious,’ that you needn’t (nor, really, shouldn’t) search for a life defining goal, but rather spend time ‘learning as much as you can about as much as you can.’ Engaging in short term obsessions, rather than long term dreams, may a better approach; deeply immersing yourself in whatever takes your fancy for a while, before moving on to the next shiny object. I must say, I find it quite an enchanting idea, one which many artists embrace; their careers broken into periods of exploration of particular subjects.
Certainly, both these approaches to the acquisition of knowledge have their place. A careful and discerning filter for the complete crap I’ll encounter exploring the Internet is just as valuable as the dogged pursuit of new information, of ideas to enrich my life and expand my world view. Either in the extreme would have deleterious effects.
Arriving at Cocoa Wah-Wah, I wasted no time in revealing my find to Sarah, who is a passionate piano player and musician. I found it a thrilling idea: that, to Lara and I, this was merely a page of dots and dashes, printed on rows of lines. But to Sarah… ‘Oh my goodness, I love [whatshisname]! He was a German composer, my mum’s favourite actually! This is one of his famous pieces; although I think it was intended for the violin. Do you mind if I take this? It’d make my mum so happy!’
Here before us, was an incredible example of the clash of realities: objective versus subjective. It beautifully captured how general knowledge has the power to mould our view of the world; we were all examining the same page, but the differences in what we saw were night and day. Perhaps I’m overreacting to this experience, but, wow, it was glorious!
Minchin certainly has a powerful point. A well rounded knowledge base opens us up to all sorts of hidden secrets the world is desperate to share. The call of a bird, meaningless to me, has mother donning her coat, the spookvoel’s cry a near guarantee that rain is imminent. A change in the wind, entirely unnoticed on my part, has Rob sprinting for his surfboard, the south-easter being the ideal wind for the beach. And a crumpled page of abandoned music has Sarah thinking of her mum, and beaming.
‘Learn as much as you can about as much as you can.’ That seems a good motto to keep in mind, as I navigate ‘this one, meaningless existence’ (Minchin’s view) of mine.