VI. Wake up more empty every day
Lessons from Ye | Kanye West |
Wake up more empty every day
More knowledge does not necessarily make us more confident; it makes us question more and doubt more about our own decisions.
There is something called the Dunning-Kruger effect, which goes something like this: "People with limited knowledge on a specific topic are normally more confident than people with much more knowledge on the same topic".
This is why almost anyone throws opinions about global warming, transgender rights, abortion, and vaccines with such high self-confidence; their knowledge is so limited that their approach is simplistic and narrow.
Ask the same questions to scientists who have been spending years on research, thought and experiments. They will probably answer more vaguely; they will tell you that it is a very complex topic and that their opinions change and move according to new evidence. But the masses want certainty, so it is more popular and convincing the argument of a self-confident with limited knowledge than any other scientist full of evidence and doubt.
“The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people are so full of doubts.” Bertrand Russel.
Every day, we wake up carrying all the knowledge and the doubts we've been accumulating over our past; we do many things by inertia that sometimes we do not realize; we run on autopilot.
Sometimes, ignorance is bliss; it is an opportunity to start again, have new eyes, approach problems from a different angle, and be a bit more confident.
What if we try to wake up every day and pick one topic we decide -on purpose- to be ignorant and have a beginner's mind? One topic a day, where we choose to learn, start from zero, and be open to anything.
We may surprise ourselves. Don't let your knowledge block you.
“I just clear my head and just wake up more empty every day” Ye
