Everyone wants to be infallible, I get it.
Having All The Answers
“I am the wisest man alive, for I know one thing, and that is that I know nothing.” — Socrates.
I believe you don’t have to know all the answers. You don’t have to be right all the time. You do not have to be flawless.
In Japan it makes people jump in front of trains or go hang themselves in a forest, or snap and kill a bunch of people. Who I am kidding, this deep-rooted necessity for perfection makes suicide and homicide levels in every country rise.
Nothing that we believe in is 100% truth. Our brains and their plasticity allow a myriad of gene expression, a spectrum of thinkers — every one of us. Yet we cling to certainty like it’ll keep us safe.
Welcome Doubt
“It’s our responsibility as scientists… to teach how doubt is not to be feared but welcomed and discussed.”— Richard Feynman
Teaching doubt allows for mistakes.
If not reaching 100% gets to you, here’s a bit of advice: You’re alive now but you’ll be dead in the future. Everyone, including Socrates and Feynman were part of this temporary relay-race. We get a chance to contribute to help the next generation out, but we will never have all answers to everything.
I assure you, when — and if — we reach that point it’ll probably be boring anyway. Can you imagine there being no questions? Can you bear a full lifetime of only talking about the weather?
Enjoy the mystery and don’t be afraid to put forward your thoughts. What happens when you go looking for answers is often more influential than the answers themselves.
