324. adrift
we’re all lost in the deep
fighting against the tide
that our monsters intend to keep.
adrift,
in a sea of confliction
we search in order to be found.
reaching,
for any connection, allowing us
to find our feet on solid ground.
it’s said, that anxiety
is quickly quelled by action.
and it’s known that grasping
makes finding easy.
yet, if we aren’t careful
our fear will anchor us into reaction.
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We’re lost in an ocean of opinion, not knowing where to look for the right answers. Much of the time, information is merely opinion, backed up only by what fortifies the accepted narrative. This is as true for the way we talk to ourselves about if we are worthy of that raise, as the way the news intends to inform us.
We are what we pay attention to. The ideas that we consume — about ourselves and the world at large — are what create the world we see. If we are fearful and looking for answers, we will grasp at the closest thing that makes sense to us. Unfortunately, the closest thing (or idea) isn’t always the right answer. You thinking you didn’t get that date because you weren’t enough, is an idea you believe because it fits your narrative about yourself. You thinking the sky is falling because the news continues to tell you so is an idea you believe because it fits the narrative that is being reinforced.
It’s not until we stop listening to the things that only serve to keep us down, and start recreating how we interact with this world, will we be able to approach life with a sense of conscious choice instead of continuing to react out of fear.
106. answers are meant to be questioned
We’ve been told to “fake it, til we make it,” and in the process have become experts at faking it, all the while distancing ourselves from the ability to tell the difference. Whether it’s due to ego or ignorance, a lot of what we “know” simply isn’t accurate, and the danger is that it often isn’t easy to tell what parts are lacking real evidence. Mastering the art of stating an unfounded opinion as fact, the “experts” are found smiling and bluffing their way through an answer. They rise in the ranks because we value chest thumping and answers, that match our opinion, delivered with conviction over an honest “it depends.” Yet, the majority of us have invested little more than a sound bite worth of time or a few minutes worth of googling in an attempt to become knowledgable on an issue. “In our certainty obsessed public discourse,” As Ozan Varol says in Think Like a Rocket Scientist “we avoid reckoning with nuance” and prefer baffling people with bullshit, instead of realizing that our answers are meant to be questioned. So we march forward pretending to “know“ what we think we know, oblivious to any fact that may contradict our beliefs simply because our discussion is allowed to proceed without a rigorous system for discerning facts from fake news.
85. questions over answers
The problem we face is that the majority of people simply rearrange what they already know in an effort to understand what they don’t, instead of coming to terms with what is unknown and being open to exploring the subject. Anyone can find a study that confirms their belief, but if you only look at it from the same side, does that really allow you to understand something fully? You can look head on at a cube and get the impression that it’s just a square, but when you change your perspective, you realize that there are multiple dimensions. You can look up a word in a dictionary and learn the definition, but without working it into a sentence, you can’t fully grasp what it means or how it should be used.
The true problem solvers are the ones who dive head first down rabbit holes in an effort to challenge the status quo, not find answers. Their inquisitiveness is indefatigable. Their aspiration to grow their knowledge know no bounds, and provides them with a continued input of ideas which stimulate their imagination to continually search not for answers, but come up with better questions. Belief that any of us have anything figured out stifles our personal growth by creating boundaries. It gives us the false impression that we have answers, when we really need to be continuously searching for the next best question.