Curated and distributed into: SELF
Not Knowing Everything Is Vital for Knowing Your Own Self
Billions of sites must spew out colorful information tips
We don’t know a huge part of life. Most of what happens on a physical or emotional level remains unknown until it goes wrong, and we see the medical report showing some values that are above or below the optimal figure.
Medical records are trustworthy because of the research in biology, microbiology, pathology, and other disciplines. Scientists are trying to reach a similar level of excellent work to help us in emotional, psychological, and artistic life — but most of it is in infancy at this time. Human beings have yet to discover many new fields, though our bodies are working according to the rules of those undiscovered fields.
A few decades ago, there was no field of neuroscience or epigenetics or psychoneuroimmunology. Nobody knew about cognitive dissonance or behavioral biases. Yet we have to live life with the given information in a particular period. People who can describe feelings that society doesn’t know yet, we regard them as eccentric or insane — for example, Galileo, Copernicus, or Carl Jung. I believe that Carl Jung’s madness had some method behind it. I think you may develop new ways of knowing — mixing senses, reason, and logic with fresh perspectives — to understand new facets of your life until you can hallucinate a new vision of reality that nobody can see except you.
Sometimes, just one person knows what the new information is, but it does not mean that this cocktail of imagination and logic does not exist. It exists in one mind, and if other people were to taste that cocktail, they would be able to see the new big picture. For around fifty years, only a handful of people understood the theory of relativity of Albert Einstein.
In an age, when information sells like hotcakes, and advertisement depends on more sharing of information, a new kind of information is like a new product that businesses can sell. In this information age, billions of websites users upload billions of hours of video content to claim that fresh content is available. Most of it is either old information in new bottles or old info in old bottles with new stickers or new expiry dates.
Information is a big business. Billions of sites must spew out colorful information sets. New tricks of information sharing will bring new customers. People are going crazy to get some knowledge that becomes a panacea for all their problems.
As the selling of self-help books has become a big business, many people have become rich only by telling people how to become rich. One video shows new tricks to get rich while the other says that every get-rich-quick video is a fraud — both videos get views. Most of the viewers don’t seem to understand that if a third person provides self-help, it is not self-help. There is a lot of valuable content online that democratically rises to the top with the help of algorithms, but be wary of the baseless get-rich-quick guides.
There is no limit to knowledge. There are a lot of disciplines of science. For example, a problem with the way balance works in the inner ear causes vertigo — if you wanted to know more about it, it could take a long time for you to know the details. Only the most brilliant minds can grasp what is going on in a particular field with confidence. But the brilliant minds of the medical field don’t know anything at all about computer programming or botany. The daily uploaded content in the form of new articles and videos, is so vast that it can take multiple lifetimes to view a single day’s content.
So the question is: do you need to know all this new information?
You need to know on a need-to-know basis. You need to know what you’ll be doing on a particular day, for a specific project. Reading books is necessary for your personal growth. But the books should be relevant to what you are passing through in life. Enjoy what you learn, but mainly try to implement the knowledge in your life.
You must know your own self. You need to know about your real needs. Not what is trending somewhere. No. The actual needs. Know more about topics like how to sleep comfortably, how to show love and gratitude, how to eat healthily and how to master your money-earning activity.
It is okay if you do not know everything. It is helpful for your mental and physical health. Being comfortable with yourself is more necessary. Knowing that you can find the relevant information at any time is more of a skill than knowing everything beforehand.
If you honestly admit that you don’t know everything, and you can’t or don’t need to know everything, it may help you more. Everything which any one person can think of has already been thought about by someone else — only you don’t know it. You’ll realize that many people have experienced each one of your life encounters. Though your life experience as a whole is unique, and that too not in the nature of the event but in time arrangement, intensity, and perception of the experience.
Most people feel overwhelmed by the information. They may realize that there is nothing left to be said. But that is not the case. Your voice and your whole life experience is so unique that if you do not embrace the existing life disciplines and research fields, you may very well come up with an ology of your own. Just stick to your way of thinking and understanding of life as it presents itself to you.
Einstein believed that if you read too many books, you could become a lazy thinker. Such lazy thinkers will try to find a video, a lecture, or an article on everything they are facing in life. From emotional issues to food choices, they will become slaves to information provided by others. Human beings can come up with customized personal solutions for their unique life situations.
When the information load increases and you rely on general solutions, your personal ability to come up with unique solutions diminishes. You become less adept at solving your problems intuitively. So, let go of some of the knowledge that is floating in cyberspace. Go for an information fast, an external information sabbath — your brain will love it.
Once you admit that you don’t need to know everything, you can sit comfortably and read what you want to read. This thinking approach will help you to develop your worldview. You’ll become a better thinker and more efficient problem solver for the rest of your life.
You don’t buy every book when you go to a book store. You read the book reviews for guidance. The curation is a review of your written piece — by Medium.
