Category: Knowledge

How Important Is Preservation?

To be able to learn from the past, we need to preserve it. But what happens when preservation keeps us from improving?

Most people are familiar with preservation, at least in basic form. If you live in a historic city or area, you are likely familiar with one or more buildings that have been designated a historical landmark.

Similarly, important historical figures often donate their papers and effects to a library. For instance, the Boston University’s Mugar Library has the papers, correspondence, and effects that belonged to noted author Isaac Asimov. They are preserved for historians to study.

Of course, preservation doesn’t have to be limited to famous people. You’ve probably thought about how you might preserve your own belongings. Perhaps you have a photo album, or keep postcards or letters you have received. Maybe you have a home safe or special location to store important documents. These might include the deed to a home, a wedding certificate, high school and/or college diploma, social security card, passport, and so on.

And yet, knowing what to keep and what to get rid of can be very difficult. Your email inbox, for instance, likely gets some important documents that you’d like to keep. Probably, it also gets flooded with unimportant messages of all kinds. Do you bother to sift through the contents to keep the wheat and eliminate the chaff? If not, is it because you don’t think it is worth your time?

Also, sometimes you have to tear down the old in order to build the new. Can we reconcile the need to save the past as well as make a better future?

Related questions: What possessions of yours will someone want when you die? What advice would you give your past self? Is life today better than in the past?

 

 

When Do You Feel Powerful?

Within us, we all have power: the power to think, speak, act, question, and more. We don’t, however, always recognize how powerful we are.

We all want power of some sort. You may not necessarily think of it as power, but we want a better life for ourselves and our loved ones. That might include getting an education, so we know more about how the world works. We might strive for a high-paying job so we can afford a house and other things. Or we find a partner and start a family.

All these are normal life activities, but they are also ways to increase how powerful we are. We use our knowledge, our money, and our connections to our benefit.

One of the key aspects of having power is being able to apply it when and where it will do the most good. And to do that, you have to recognize your own abilities, and to feel comfortable using them.

Think about experiences you have had, and in particular try to recall when you have felt the most in control of a situation.What was happening at that moment, and why did you feel powerful? Are there any sorts of common threads to making your voice heard, or getting your point across?

There are bound to be times when you feel powerless. However, that’s never true. There is always something you can do, some action you can take. In order to most effectively tap into your own strength, it helps to recognize it.

When have you felt the most powerful? Can you recreate that feeling, even if the circumstances are different?

Related questions: Who has power? How much power does an individual have? What can you control? How can we build confidence?

 

Is More Knowledge Always Better?

Gaining knowledge is what has helped us succeed as a species. Are there circumstances, though, where ignorance is preferred?

Across the planet, different species fit a particular environmental niche. The native plants or animals tend to be adapted for the environment, to stay warm in cold temperatures, or have long necks to reach the tall trees, and so on.

Humans are, on paper, a middling species, at best. We’re not the strongest, or the fastest. By almost every measure, there is some other type of life form that is better.

One of the few exceptions has to do with gaining and retaining knowledge. We puzzle out why things work the way they do. That has led to a deeper, more comprehensive understanding of the world and how it works.

And once we learn something, we share it with others. We write it down, or speak it aloud as much and as far as we can. That combination, figuring stuff out and then telling everyone about it, has allowed our species to spread across the globe and thrive like few other animal species have.

Is knowledge, though, always a good thing? Once learned, it is not possible to unlearn something. Are there instances where knowing something is objectively, or subjectively, a bad thing?

For example, would we be better off not knowing how to make atomic weapons that could destroy the world several times over? On a more personal level, does it serve any benefit to learn that your co-worker makes significantly more money than you do? Or that your partner cheated on you years ago?

Can you think of things, from your own life or your imagination, where you have regretted learning something? Is more knowledge always a good thing?

Related questions: Does knowledge have inherent value? What can you learn from loss? Is faster better?

What Are The Advantages Of Saying ‘I Don’t Know’?

Many people don’t like to admit that they don’t know something. However, there are advantages to saying the words ‘I don’t know’. What are they?

Knowing things is very useful. In fact, much of our society has been built around people knowing things. Engineers build bridges because they understand how materials behave. We have remarkably accurate warnings regarding extreme weather events because meteorologists understand how weather patterns evolve. And so on.

If knowing things is powerful, then the obvious corollary is that not knowing things displays weakness. Or so it might seem.

Indeed, we often behave as though that were the case. People often go through life projecting an air of certainty that, at times, might make it difficult to disagree or argue with them.

Naturally, this is a problem if they don’t actually know what they claim to know. That can be potentially embarrassing for them, or problematic or even dangerous for those around them.

So there is a time and a place for revealing your ignorance. After all, you only are ignorant until you learn, and learning often starts with the phrase ‘I don’t know’.

There are some things that are essentially unknowable. We can predict the future, but those predictions are just as likely to be wrong as they are to be right. Events happen all the time that catch experts off guard. Some examples include stock market crashes, sports upsets, medical diagnoses, and surprising political elections.

If you know something, it is important to state clearly that you are in possession of the facts. However, it can be just as important that when you don’t know, you say so just as clearly.

Can you think of benefits of saying ‘I don’t know’?

Related questions: When was the last time you said ‘I don’t know’? Know or don’t know? How do you deal with uncertainty?