I’m Ignorant and I Know It
In our everyday lives, we constantly seek the truth: Can we travel faster than light? Are all Earth species alone in the entire universe? Can the theory of evolution explain the entire biological history? Is there something even smaller than atoms, electrons, quanta?
The twist is: we cannot know everything (yet). However, we can assume something holds true for now and disprove it later. This fundamental uncertainty is what differentiates science from religion, which often claims absolute truths. Science, on the other hand, thrives on questioning and evolving our understanding of the world.
Light serves as a perfect example of scientific controversy. With your bare eyes, you can see the light rays and “know” that light travels in straight lines, as you may have learned in primary school. Until you find out about the double-slit experiment in high school, which makes you question: Why did no one tell me about the wave nature of light? Later, you hear about other findings and the theory that light consists of particles called photons, each carrying discrete energy packets called “quanta.” Then, you start to believe in the theory that light exhibits ray-like, wave-like, or particle-like properties, depending on the context and your experimental setup. Have you ever felt this way too?
As my education progressed, I started to believe less in the “facts” I had learned before. I began to recognize the biases and errors in my thinking and my imperfections. This realization made me understand that questioning everything is a more valuable skill than knowing everything. By questioning and “unlearning” useless stuff, I am more prepared and less disappointed when some “facts” turn out to be wrong.
I believe this is what wisdom truly entails: making an effort to unlearn irrelevant information, gossip, and anything that doesn’t benefit anyone. I was once surprised to learn that Sherlock Holmes, despite his vast knowledge, didn’t know basic facts about the planets. However, considering that this information wasn’t necessary for his work, it makes sense. Similarly, Shaolin monks focus on learning only what they need, nothing more. Maintaining a high-quality knowledge base is crucial, and it requires regular cleaning and reassessment. Quality over quantity.
Just like using different frameworks, I have encountered people who switch their favorite programming tools more often than they change their socks. As a result, they tend to forget the most basic working principles. They may not realize that sticking with the same tool for a while or reverse-engineering methods from scratch can significantly enhance their understanding and proficiency.
In this ever-evolving world, we can only remain sane by recognizing the basic patterns and seeing the bigger picture. In fact, this is what we’ve been pre-trained for (for millions of years): Filtering out the nonsense. Over-simplification. Modeling stuff. Generalization and pattern-matching. Unlearning BS. Funny enough that a computer scientist tells you to unlearn things. Or is it?
