Tuesday, February 8, 2011
The More I Learn and the Older I Get the More I Realize I Don't Know
So does this mean I'm getting smarter or dumber?
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Nathan Bransford
Brooklyn, NY
United States
Brooklyn, NY
United States
Nathan Bransford is the author of Jacob Wonderbar and the Cosmic Space Kapow (Dial, May 2011), Jacob Wonderbar for President of the Universe (Dial, April 2012) and Jacob Wonderbar and the Interstellar Time Warp (Dial, February 2013). He was formerly a literary agent with Curtis Brown Ltd. and is now the social media manager at CNET. He lives in Brooklyn.
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84 comments:
Neither smarter nor dumber but wiser and humbler.
There is nothing worse than to have to ask what something is at the age of >25 and have people act like you're crazy for not knowing.
The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing. -Socrates
I'll piggyback on Phil. You are wiser. Just think about teenagers who think they know everything. We laugh at their naiveté. Learning is through experience and objective understanding. The best part for me is knowing there is always something new my brain can feast on.
Just older.
As my grandpa always said, getting older is better than the alternative....
Wiser... definitely wiser.
:-)
Basically you're getting smarter but realizing you're actually dumb. That's sort of how I feel every day. The more I learn about the subject of my research the more I realize I know absolutely nothing about the subject of my research. But I do know more than I did yesterday, so I figure that counts for something.
You have more appetite for knowledge and realize the limits of time...
C G
Munk has it right. Perspective is something that shifts with age.
Truth: As long as you're learning, you'll never stop growing.
More truth: there's a limit to knowledge, but no limit to ignorance.
What Phil said.
“Ray, pretend for a moment that I don’t understand anything about metallurgy, engineering or physics, and just tell me what the hell is going on.”
Dr. Peter Venkman, Ghostbusters
This pretty much sums it up.
Young people are so cocky.
I go through this all the time. I like when you can look back at your younger self and laugh at your own naivety.
Well, I don't know about wiser or smarter, older or dumber...but your posts are certainly getting shorter
Both equally!
Funny Stuff I Write
Wiser.
Just wiser.
Yep. That's called wisdom. It would be far worse if you grew older and became more convinced that you knew everything. Young fools are sad, but old fools are even sadder.
I'm just laughing at what Hillsy said!
There was a great Calvin and Hobbes strip to this effect. The family's house was robbed, and Calvin's dad, not able to make sense of it, says something like: "I always just assumed when you got older, you knew all the answers."
Neither. It means you're spending too much time on the Internet with its endless "facts".
Sounds like you're breaking even.
The sum of all knowledge doesn't know all knowable knowledge. When knowable all is known, it'll all be over. And not until then.
An individual's knowledge fulfillment comes from contributing a noteworthy new iota to the sum.
What will or does Nathan Bransford contribute to knowledge?
The older I get and the more I learn, the less I remember whatever is was that I forgot.
The I.R.S. finds that unacceptable.
The more I realize about the things I've learned are the things I should've already knew unless they are new. Except for things I never knew; them I don't remember.
Yes, I've chosen wine as my writing drink today.
A few of my grandmother's sayings come to mind:
"There's no fool like an old fool," and
"Be thankful for growing old, many are denied the privilege."
So wiser or dumber, who cares? I am just happy to be granted the blessing of growing older.
It means your reality is getting closer to the truth.
Wisdom is something we acquire through experience, and recognizing that you 'don't know everything' is just the first step.
Learning is something that should be a lifelong path.
Does this mean you don't believe in Peter Pan anymore?
"I am the wisest man alive, for I know one thing and that is that I know nothing." ~Socrates
I'm with Mark Twain on this issue. I think you get smarter "When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years. " - Mark Twain "Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter." ~Mark Twain
Knowledge is expanding faster than we can learn it. When I was young, all I needed to know was "fire hot", "no pooping in cave", and "watch out for sabretooth tiger". That's not enough any more, although fire is still hot.
Talk about coincidence I blogged about this a few days ago: http://sfwritersworkshop.org/DaveK_blog
Go with it.
Oh my goodness, all of that extra time you gave yourself when you switched to basic cable is paying off!
Wiser. I think wiser. I hope wiser because I love to learn and I'm getting older too.
Don't know for sure but, since I am much, much, much older than you are, I'm definitely getting it more. Of course, I'm voting for smarter.
Hire a teenager while they still know everything.
Hmm, maybe it means you're getting wiser...wiser, but not necessarily smarter. :D
~TRA
http://xtheredangelx.blogspot.com
Sounds a bit like this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning–Kruger_effect
:D
Funnier.
Wise and dumb are the same coin, me thinks?
you're getting wiser, nathan.
I'm not sure. Could you give us some examples so we can make a better decision?
"Truly wise men know that they are not truly wise."
It's a frustrating thing, getting older. I find myself questioning if I even know grammar at all.
But I do appreciate Prince and Stevie Wonder more.
From very early on, my Grandfather informed me that he ages backwards, like Merlin. He just looks older. I usually greet him by asking, "so where are we now, 28, 29?" Then he gives me a quarter.
You're only as young as you feel :)
I have been thinking this so much lately! Every time my little Judge inside starts to judging, I must remind myself how often in the past I have been wrong.
I think this is the way life is supposed to go. We need to develop generalizations and compartments for what we see around us in the world to somehow understand. Then as we age it is a process of letting go previous assumptions, while gaining fresher perspectives. (Later to be defunct)
This is what comes of sitting around all day debating philosophy with those CNET people. What next? Martial arts?
To partially answer John Jack's question, Nathan has already contributed a vast amount to my knowledge.
Charlie, better not try to deduct the cost of the wine...
Like Munk said - just older. By the time your my age, you'll be a complete moron. At least that's what my kids tell me. ;)
Exponential.
With greater awareness comes the appreciation that the knowledge you possess is but a fraction of all that could be known.
Knowledge is the weaker tool: knowledge of the world as it is understood now.
Imagination is the greater tool: the wherewithal to question, and to imagine what lies beyond our current understanding.
Zen Smith
As others have said, it doesn't mean you're getting smarter or dumber. It means you're getting older and experiencing two benefits of aging: wisdom (not the same as being smart) and humility. It's all good.
"Real knowledge is to know the extent of one's ignorance." - Confucius
Wiser, definitely.
However, I regret to inform you, Nathan, as someone older than you, that it gets worse.
Around 40, I suddenly realized that although I knew little, at least half of what I DID know was wrong.
Now that I'm approaching 50, I'm starting to suspect the other half is even wronger.
See what you have to look forward to? :)
What then from what he's learned does J.T. Shea, or Nathan Bransford, or anyone, newly contribute to knowledge?
Maybe a little of both but mostly confused.
I'm a researcher by day and my old office used to have a sign that said, "We regret to inform you that we have not answered your questions. In fact we have generated MORE questions. But we believe these questions are on a higher plane and will lead to greater understanding."
In otherwords... yeah... you know MORE if you are more aware of all you don't know...
I officially want to find/make a sign that has the quote from Hart's office sign. It seems like the inner-working of my mind put down in a quotation.
As to your question Nathan, I'd say it makes you wiser. If you picture a wise elderly person, do you picture someone still convinced that they know all or someone convinced that they know very little regardless of their wisdom? I always picture the latter. Those who think they know all things are called adolescents. It's part of why I love my students, they are both unsure of themselves personally and incredibly sure of everything they think they know.
At least you've realized this. Some people never do.
Smarter and wiser!!! Have a listen to Dylan's "My Back Pages." He says it beautifully.:)
The older I get, the more I lie to myself. It saves a lot of trouble.
I was going to be all zen and tell you it means you are wiser...but 50 peeps told you first so nevermind!
It's like that scene in "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure" when they meet Socrates.
It says here: "True wisdom lies in knowing that you know nothing." That's us, dude!
So therefore, according to Socrates, you are getting smarter. Dude.
Salima beat me to it, but I'll fill in with the Dylan quote: "But I was so much younger then; I'm younger than that now."
Teenagers are immortal and know everything. Then they start to actually learn stuff.
Smarter. You are realizing something new, thats a step in the right direction :) Now you can tackle some of the stuff you don't know and make it stuff you do know.
There's some quote that I can't exactly remember, might be Einstein, to the effect that, the greater your sphere of knowledge, the larger the boundaries of your ignorance.
Something like that, anyway!
It's hereditary- remember how little your parents knew when you were a teenager?
It's hereditary- remember how little your parents knew when you were a teenager?
Wiser. Now you get to figure out more stuff. Oh and enjoy the aches and pains as the body whines about the next class.
Another good question, John Jack. And we have just the guy to answer it on the Bransforums. Polymath.
It means neither, but only that as open-minded as you are, it (your mind) continues to expand and let more possibilities in.
...yes...
Neither.
It means you're getting better.
I like what Phil said. Well said, Phil. Also, wonderful quote from Socrates given by Rane.
It's funny how, as teenagers, we all go through a phase of intoxication with our own self-perceived cleverness. But it's only when we get to the stage you've mentioned, Nathan, that we start to see the enormity of the whole picture. Awareness is everything.
I realise I know little when it comes to technology, especially. Just received a new android phone, and the learning curve is off the scale...for me. On my old phone I only needed to key in the number. Now I need a Google account and to master many tricky manoeuvres before I can just ring someone. When I was wrestling with the settings, I was given the option of tapping into someone's network down the road. I wonder if someone down the road has been given the option of tapping into my network, too.(Password protected, I know.) However, now I can download ebooks and read them on the phone. Woo.
Move over, Dick Tracy.
Hopefully, wiser.
(Proverbs 17:28)
I say we get smarter because we are less arrogant, more humble. All good.
Could it be?
Maybe it is like sailing off the end of the world thinking the world is flat...relief that you didn't fall off the end of the world, and there is a whole new world to be discovered.
"Awareness helps us see more than we could before."
word ver: nonqua (is that like a desert?)
"When we know more, we see more."
Lucy
I don't know, but at least now I know I'm not the only one.
Just more thirsty for knowledge
I think that's because the older you get, the more you realize how much there is in the world. No one can possibly know it all. Not that this stops some people from thinking they do. As long as you keep thinking you don't know it all, you're still learning. It's when you stop learning that you're in trouble.
And like the other "old folks" have commented, this feeling just seems to grow with age. Nearing 50, I just feel more and more like I don't know enough. But maybe that's because I'm job-hunting, which tends to amplify all of this in a depressing way ...
Yes. You are getting one of the two. ^_-
To me, it doesn’t matter. As long as I can still see a pristine fluffy snow bank and want nothing more than to do a somersaulting flip into it, I know I’m doing just fine (regarless of whether I physically can or not). Let the questions about wisdom come and go, because they will do so forever, but never leave a pristine snow bank behind.
It happens. After a half-century of hanging around, I can sometimes realize I don't know where I left the car keys, what day my anniversary falls on, and if I remembered to take my pills. I can provide you with the name of someone who can vouch for this if you need it.
Unfortunately, it just means what it is...you're getting older...:)
Best,
T
There are two possible explanations to this saying:
1)You are smart enough to understand you don't know enough- unlike those who are extremly "dumb" to think they know everything.
2)Everytime you learn something new, you realise how much you will never know about that particular subject.
P.S- you're only 25? Or are you older and am I having my leg pulled by some of the commenters?
I take comfort in knowing that no one knows very much. But collectively, we know enough.
Not smarter, sorry friend. But more experienced and more aware.
I keep thinking about what you said, "in my old job as a literary agent..." that you enjoyed reading when you weren't forced to.
That means that the books that we read, usually published from bookstores, are indeed perfect. Hence the enjoyment. What you got as a lit agent wasn't perfect. That's intersting to me.
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