Tidbits #2
Oliver Burkeman in his book 4000 weeks suggests that we obsess about productivity tools because we prefer fooling ourselves into believing that with the right tool we will be able to do everything that we think is worth doing instead of accepting that we have very limited time on earth and there are an infinite number of things that could be worth doing.
I believe that our (my) obsession with knowledge is a thought along the same lines. If I have access to all the knowledge available, I would simply be better. I think in a way that is what the most exciting technologies allude to. ChatGPT, Augmented Reality and Brain-Machine Interfaces. They promise to make us smarter, more productive through instant access to the correct answer or the closest thing to it. Wouldn't that make ChatGPT the most powerful entity there is? We are in the Information/Knowledge era after all. Knowledge is power.
But I am learning (the hard way) that knowledge alone does not create change in people. Knowledge alone can't make me better. Change whether internal or external is created when knowledge becomes wisdom. Wisdom on a specific area can only be created when knowledge of that area gets ingrained into your body and mind through repeated experience/action. And as there is a hard limit on how many different things we can do/act/experience with our very finite time on earth, there is a hard limit on how many things we can gain wisdom on or how deep our wisdom can go.
This all leads me to a few conclusions or points of inspiration:
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- the endless pursuit of knowledge breadth is pointless. I was only ever meant to gain wisdom in a few things.
- meaningful change in a wider area will require people with wisdom through different life experiences (maybe this is what "diversity" should actually be about)
"We are the way for the universe to know itself"
That quote resonates even harder right now to me. Every life led, and every unique experience contributes to the total wisdom that the universe has about Life. Maybe that's enough.