A Restless Mind

When future uncertainty is layered upon present uncertainty, you tend to get into a state of mind that's both unsubstantial and muddy, as in unclear and confusing.

I used to think that present uncertainty is totally unjustified because it doesn't serve any real purpose.

What I've come to realize is that uncertainty might actually be more honest than false confidence.

Because when we pretend to know things we don't, we usually make worse decisions than when we simply admit we're unsure and proceed carefully.

Sometimes, I believe we have to do first, then understand instead of the other way round of understanding first, before doing.

Experientially, there's no study material, especially when it comes to doing something you've not done before or very few people have done before and you've access to.

You first have the test/exam, then comes the results and from the results the study material is derived, which becomes tomorrow's wisdom for the next person brave enough to try.

Aren't we such a strange species?

Is Your Understanding Expiring?

I think our sense of understanding nowadays is less concrete or rather permanent against the backdrop of a world that's both dynamic and moving exponentially.

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I'm trying to not hold too much onto what I understand now because it could become completely outdated in a few years from now.

A few years ago, my understanding was the chicken comes before the egg, now I'm leaning more into the egg coming before the chicken.

Of course, this is just a wordplay but the point is understanding can be time-sensitive.

Perhaps, an actual example is how we've collectively changed our understanding from believing the governments and co have our best interests at heart to totally questioning their motives to the point that many people now assume the opposite in just a couple of decades.

It is said that there are no permanent solutions in dynamic systems.

By and large, we're more or less living in a completely dynamic system if you exclude basic human needs like food, shelter, and connection, of course.

Even these seemingly stable needs are evolving though.

Food has become processed and globalized, shelter now includes digital spaces we inhabit daily, and connection happens through screens as much as if not more than face-to-face.

The ground beneath what we thought was solid keeps shifting and this constant motion creates a peculiar psychological state where our minds are always reaching for something steady to grab onto, but finding mostly moving parts.

Searching For A Resting Place

It's interesting to ponder upon that we're trying to achieve a sense of permanence in a world that's inherently temporal.

I don't have enough study material about this yet, other than reading somewhere that consciousness is restless, it's always looking for something to rest on.

I think the digital age will push this into overdrive and the first signs of it are already appearing with our increasingly shorter attention spans.


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