Stay Empty: Ask the Ants Finale

We live in the information age but ignorance has never been so prevalent. People tend to think they know a lot when they know so little. We are surrounded by so much data yet we lack the ability to interpret them all. Most people claim to be ‘professionals’ in so many areas that only few are learning. People who ought to be students want to teach people good enough to be their teachers.

To be successful, you should acquire the information relevant to your niche; you should become a lifelong student. You need to become empty to become full. Value what you already know but consider it inferior to what you need to know. Your current level of performance is equal to your current level of knowledge. You can never outperform your knowledge level. It is dangerous to celebrate a current success at the expense of the future one because today’s winning idea is tomorrow’s outdated information. Failure to reinvent is the easiest way to lose relevance.

It is good to be confident of what you know but be conscious that there is more. What you don’t seek you won’t appreciate when you find. Learning is a deliberate process. Knowledge and inspiration can be acquired even in the least likely places. For instance, when I first became fascinated by the ants and wrote my first post on the subject [See here], I expected to write only a few articles. Fourteen posts down the line, however, I’m pleasantly surprised at how much one can learn from very small things. Here are some final critical lessons from the ants: Read more