To know that you do not know....

by OnTheWayOut 18 Replies latest jw friends

  • Mad Sweeney
    Mad Sweeney

    Did Lao Tzu ever say anything that wasn't AWESOME! ?

    If so, I haven't found it yet.

    http://www.taoteching.org/

  • Twitch
    Twitch

    When I was young, I knew everything and how it all should work.

    I grew and learned, sometimes the hard way, of how little I really know and how things actually are.

    The older I get, the less I know for certain yet all the more accepting of it I've become (for the most part :)

    Paradoxes are strange.

  • SweetBabyCheezits
    SweetBabyCheezits

    Wow, that's a great quote! I keep a running stash of my favorites. That one just got added.

    Reminds me of this one....

    "I do not consider it an insult, but rather a compliment to be called an agnostic. I do not pretend to know where many ignorant men are sure -- that is all that agnosticism means."

    - Clarence Darrow, Scopes trial, 1925

    Twitch, I'm diggin that Escher you've got for an avatar. I've loved his work since middle school.

    SweetBabyCheezits

  • Black Sheep
    Black Sheep
    ...when your knowledge or expertise is imperfect, you really don’t know it. Left to your own devices, you just don’t know it. We’re not very good at knowing what we don’t know.

    .... But we can do something about it. Ex cult members can hone up their skills in recognising their deficiencies. We just need good coaching.

    There are several books by Edward de Bono that go into ways of avoiding the pitfalls of relying on faulty data and assumptions.

    I am sure he is not the only one that covers this topic.

    Cheers

    Chris

  • Slidin Fast
    Slidin Fast

    I wish I was as sure about anything as the GB is about everything.

  • Twitch
    Twitch

    SweetBabyCheezits

    Twitch, I'm diggin that Escher you've got for an avatar. I've loved his work since middle school.

    Thanks, he's been a fav as well, for about as long.

    Fascinating perspectives of impossible constructions. And such.

  • Hope4Others
    Hope4Others

    Good thoughts OTWO.....

  • JeffT
    JeffT

    I went to a seminar once that started with a grid:

    1 Things you know and know you know

    2 Things you know and don't know that you know

    3 Things you know you don't know

    4 and things you don't know and don't know you don't know them.

    It's the last one that will bite you at an inopportune moment. Example: the WTBS can't bring itself to apply #3 and just say "we don't know" so they flounder about in number 4 and cough up things that "evidently" explain what they can't really explain.

  • darkuncle29
    darkuncle29

    I love the Tao Te Ching.

    When I talk with people now, I tend to pay attention to how rigid their thoughts are; how "right" they think they are; and if they are open or aware of the possibility that they may be wrong, or incorrect for the particular discussion. I think that lack of humility is conected to this, or just plain ego. Doesn't matter what topic -religion, politics, even science. When someone is so certain they they are right, they are not open to the possibility that they may be wrong, and that middle ground between "right" and "wrong" covers a great deal of territory.

    I will answer "I don't know". I don't engage in arguments with people who do.

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