LN#6 : Deknowledge Yourself

You might not know this but you might be suffering from a disease called ‘Redundant Knowledge Intake’ (RKI).

I suffered from it for a very long time.

Initially, I didn’t know what was the problem with me. I only knew that there was something that was wrong with me, mentally.

I was gaining knowledge from everywhere and about everything.

And then I read more books to understand what was my problems and finally, I cured it when I realized what it was.

My symptoms were :

1. I was demotivated for no reason.

2. I knew all the ways in which I couldn’t be successful, statistically and was worried.

3. I was frustrated by the world and was worried about humanity.

4. I wasted my time trying to solve a lot of problems — on the internet using a Keyboard.

It took me eight years to realize that none of my efforts on the internet brought any change.

Everyone say knowledge is the greatest wealth.

Sadly this advice has an expiry date. it expired 100 years ago.

The new advice is -

Only Knowledge that is relevant to you is your wealth.

It is difficult to argue with anyone these days. Everyone knows today about everything. The Internet has made access to information millions of times easier than it was 50 years back.

In 1700s, newspapers were invented and revolutionized the world. By early 1900, they were rampantly getting sold everywhere. It was a tremendous source of information. There was both redundant and useful information inside it based on who wanted to read what. It was assumed that people would buy it and read the news that is only relevant to them.

That didn’t happen.

People developed the habit of reading entire newspapers. There were people who gained excessive knowledge doing that and became famous, while the rest of the majority just wasted their time and filled their mind with garbage information.

Newspapers were a great source of knowledge but you have to pick them up, and in a very uncomfortable manner hold it in your hands and then — read them. It took effort and time on behalf of the reader to read them.

Newspaper stories were like soap operas. If you would read one story a day, follow it for two more days, then after four days it would excite you so much that you would run for the newspaper early morning to know what happened in that news story afterwards.

It happened with me. After a week of starting to read the newspaper, I felt the craving to read them every day in the morning. I and my brother would fight over it.

Coming back.

Then came the radios at the beginning of 1900.

After the demise of Earth, the century of 1900 will be remembered in its biography for the time when the destruction of mankind began with the advent of technology.

Radio is basically audio. You click the device and you listen. The only effort you would have to make is to click it open. Then it is all automatic. It used only one faculty of your body.

Your Ears.

You were free from staying in one place, putting efforts to read and building concentration.

You were free to do whatever you want, most people multi-tasked.

It rained more information on people. The choice of information intake that you had with the newspaper was not there anymore. You have to listen to it all the time. You can’t keep clicking it open and shut based on what program is coming online.

Then came the television. One of the greatest inventions of the 19th century is also one of the biggest human-lazy-maker machines.

Now instead of one, there were two faculties of your brain that were occupied.

Earlier it was just ears but this time it was ears and eyes. Twice the information was reaching your mind.

Images that were not part of your imagination were getting fed to you in such a manner that they would engage your mind and make them seem super interesting.

It was like a slow poison and kept giving people information that they don’t need in the guise of entertainment. The poison of knowledge does not come mostly from News this time, it also came from the advertisement.

The advertisement industry is based on lies. A client comes up with a product to them to sell it and they devise methods to deceive people into buying it by creating a set of lies which is told with the help of a story or beautiful visuals. For egoistic purposes, they call it — Marketing and Advertising.

Then in the last decade of the 1900s came the internet.

It helped humanity connect with each other more easily, it made the sharing of information easier and hence, destroyed the human race beyond repair.

If information was counted in mass then billions of tonnes of information are being flooded on humanity every day. Some of the time it is fake and most of the time it is repetitive. Result - It cramps up your mind.

Earlier you didn’t know how many were dying of hunger in Africa or how many were dying in Muslim countries due to religious wars.

Nowadays every kid knows about it. They are bothered about the fate of that country and try to solve their problems by discussing with another highly informed internet literate population and get a feeling that by discussing it they are solving the problem.

Neither the problem is solved nor they stop. As a result, you lose your sleep over it and feel frustrated and curse humanity for the way it is turning itself into.

Is that all?

No, personally it results in depression, demotivation, lack of focus and hatred for other people.

But it is not people’s fault. They keep getting information without their consent and get their minds overloaded without knowing it. They don’t know what to do with all that knowledge and it makes them frustrated.

You know what is the number one cause of depression — Lack of Reason.

I have talked to several depressed people. None of them knew what caused depression inside them. Frustration, irritation and demotivation can be easily solved because in these cases people know what is causing it. During the depression, you will often hear statements like, “One morning I just got up and realized that I was depressed and no matter what I did, I just couldn’t get out of it.”

They don't know the reason behind its happening.

That is why depression is termed as a clinical psychological problem and no, it does not completely go away with medication. Medication for it often creates hallucinations hitting on nerves by increasing adrenaline flow. Medication for it is basically very mild drug affecting your body. The best cure for depression is talking to a professional.

The only way depression can be cured is by knowing the reason behind it. That is where the psychologist comes in. They try to dig in to find the reason.

But why I am telling you about the depression in the article written for knowledge.

It is because most of the time the main cause of depression is the redundant knowledge intake of which we don’t know how to deal with.

People also try to go in denial of that knowledge which causes depression.

Now there are times when the seepage of knowledge inside your mind is either very slow and silent.

In the first case, you see something gruesome like a mob killing an innocent man for a petty crime while browsing the internet. (Dailymail people are really good at posting content like that.)

In the second case, you will get to know that your boyfriend has cheated on you just like Deepika Padukone found out in case of Ranbeer or maybe one day you get up and hear about the 9/11 twin tower attack.

In both of the cases, it is very easy to retain the information but extremely difficult to let go of the information.

There are websites which are showing live footage of human beheadings. Once you have seen few terrorists playing with a human head, the images will keep playing inside your head and will ruin whatever work you had planned to do.

In Deepika’s case, you either confront the scenario as it is or get into denial because despite him cheating everything was hunky-dory in their life and your mind knows that if you ignore this one thing, everything will be just fine, as it was. In her case, she loved Ranbeer but hated him for cheating her and then she just doesn’t know what to do because making a decision means letting one thing go.

Excess of information also causes a lack of decision.

Lack of decision is the number one reason for people being depressed all the time.

The problem with knowledge is that it is very easy to gain but it is very difficult to lose it or deknowledgify.

Charles Kauffman wrote an entire film on that concept, “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” where the protagonist tries to erase memories of his girlfriend from his mind.

With the excess of information, you will never become successful at anything as you will never have enough motivation and focus to do anything, you will waste your time thinking things that you shouldn’t think and will always have enough data to justify your inaction's and failures.

So what is the solution?

The solution is to declutter your mind. Stop taking information that is not relevant to your job, profession and interest.

For doing that, disable WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter with immediate effect. They are the biggest promoter of useless information.

Don’t read anything just because you can lay your hands on them. Earlier only selective things got printed but today everything gets printed so be selective about what you read. You also don’t have to finish the entire newspaper or a magazine.

Most importantly — save yourself from the negative news, especially the news you cannot do anything about like killing happenings in other countries, terrorism in countries you have never visited.

The problems of the world are not your responsibility alone.

If you have decided to change the world then it is a different matter but if you haven’t, then don’t be bothered about the news about which you cannot do anything, else you will only end up frustrating yourself.

Knowledge is a gift but a the same time it is also a curse if not used wisely. Knowledge in itself is nothing if it is not used as wisdom. It needs to find an application for it which is often called as wisdom.

If there is no application in your life for the knowledge then you are laying out a bomb mine in your head and it can explode any time. Your mind’s capacity is unlimited for keeping knowledge but that does not mean that you should abuse that right of unlimited storage.

Be wise and chose the right knowledge.