Uneducation fosters misled dedication and mass frustration

Shackle Me Not - Jeff Soto

Delving further into how life is laid down on paths to follow, a central topic is how it is natural for society to shape the general outcome of available paths for each and every individual. Your path might be unique in it's entirety, but it will most often lead you in the same general direction as everyone else. You'll wobble through life, clinging to your own perception of reality, shaped and molded by your upbringing and inherent ability to apprehend the complexities of life, and you'll bear with you this truth about life until you die. Your general and specific ideas and convictions about life and the processes therein will define how you perceive yourself, as you measure yourself by these standards. The problem with this is the fact that your self-evaluation is based on your self-insight, and your self-insight is based on your ability to compare yourself to your perception of reality, and this perception is often flawed, to put it gently.

The truth is, many children get raised to believe dangerous misconceptions. The societies they're brought up in have been shaped by past generations' lack of knowledge combined with an innate lust for explanations, thus resulting in improvised truths that befit their reality as they perceive it. This should be a natural ongoing procedure that continues to evolve as you continue to live, making you hungrier for knowledge the more of it you get. Alas, most do not have the time nor the luxury to reflect upon everything or anything they know, and so they accept that the truth they know is as good as any, and so they pass these misconceptions on to the next generation, and so on. A vicious circle has been established, and people suffer and die, caught up in it, every day.

Conrad Bizjak

Life is a riddle, sure. I just wish more people would get at solving it their own way instead of following the bad advice of their society. The thing is, a misconceived reality will lead you nowhere safe. Thinking you have to obey certain nonexistent rules to obtain certain goals that you find important because society makes them seem like worthy achievements in life, wont necessarily get you there. Obtaining said goals would probably make you happy, because happiness is a feeling based on your perception, and so you would likely feel proud and joyful for accomplishing these achievements. The problem however lies in the misconceptions of getting there. Not all goals are attainable by the means that seem most obvious. You cannot become a famous rapper simply by playing at being a gangster and hope to survive the shootouts, and you cannot win a marathon simply by starving yourself skinny. Looks can be deceiving, and lack of knowledge can be dangerous. There is never a simple answer, everything is complex. The main reason people give up their dreams is the sudden realisation that getting there will require work. Actual work. You have to educate yourself on the topic of the dream, in order to obtain it. Misinformation will lead you astray on a misdirected path that will probably lead you nowhere good. Uneducation fosters misled dedication and mass frustration. And the problem is that being too bad at something denies you the ability to accurately judge your abilities in relevance to the norm. You simply have too narrow a perception of the issue to be able to comprehend the fact that you simply suck at it. You judge yourself to be average or often a bit above average, yet you're truthfully in the bottom 15 percentage.

Apply this to anything. Driving. You think yourself good, probably as good, or even better than most other drivers out there.  Fair enough, maybe you are. Cooking. You think yourself good, or even better than most other people out there, because you know that one special recipe and them secrets your mom told you. Fair enough, maybe you are and maybe you do. The problem is, if you're thinking "yes, I probably am as good or better", but you lack the reasons as to why you are, then you are, get this, not very good at all. Embrace the fact and educate yourself. If you could be better at something, anything, why not aim for that? Why accept mediocrity, inexperience and ignorance? Why not be the best you've ever been at everything you've ever done and ever will do? We are the pinacle of evolution and still have unheard of potential. We shouldn't all reach for the stars, but we should all start looking up and out, out of our enclosed tunnels. The more you learn, the more you realize you've got left to learn, but don't let it dishearten you. Your perception of the complete amount of knowledge you comprehend is a relative number derived from your perception of knowledge left unknown. And so, the more you learn, the less you will know. Relatively. It's a god damned paradox, but it's one we'll have to live with, because ignorance might be bliss, but it sure as hell is dull and dangerous as well.

Eyes Wide Shut - Luke Chueh

Knowledge can feel like a burden to hold, a duty to share, and a privilege to obtain. You decide what knowledge means to you, and how to approach it. But I beg of you to start thinking along the lines of "What if I'm wrong? Could there be another answer? Could I be better?". You'd be amazed by the amounts of answers the world has to offer, and I guarantee that you'll be left a more tolerating and considerate person.

Put your thinking cap on.

And don't ever take it off.