Discovery

The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance -- it is the illusion of knowledge.
Daniel J. Boorstin

How much do you think you know? Most of what we think we know has been told to us by other people. Perhaps we have read it in a book or seen it on TV, or simply talked about it over coffee. We have taken what they said and compared it to what we already know. The process of communication is very imperfect. First of all we can misunderstand what they said. And then we see what we think they said framed in the biases we already have. And then we pass on this mistake to the next person we talk to.

So we think we know a lot. There is an abundance of information floating around us. But how much of it is true? And even if it is true for someone else, it may not be true for us. The only way we can really find out whether our information is right for us is to test it out and see if things really happen the way they were supposed to. If we don't have the time or resources to test it out, we end up comparing it with what we already think we know and seeing if it is consistent with that. This is where we get into trouble because that process narrows our range of vision.

This illusion of knowledge is the greatest obstacle to discovery. If we think we already know it all, then what incentive is there for us to learn? And since the world is always changing, if we don't learn and adapt we will not be able to cope with what is coming. Ignorance is actually a good thing because it motivates us to ask questions. And when we start asking questions, we discover endless surprises, not just about our world, but about ourselves too. And that makes life much more fun.