May 28, 2019

The Power Of Not Knowing


The power of not knowing … huh? What’s that ?

Now, what has been commonly taught all the while is that knowledge is power … with knowledge you can make correct knowledge based and information driven decisions as well as calculated risks.

So what is this contrary idea of “power of not knowing” ?

Well, this is not something new … it has been a while since people started talking about it but it is now gathering a bit of momentum and is spreading among the so called “new” generation of thinking.

Look at it this way … when you do not know, what will you do?

You ask, you question, you seek and hopefully you will find. It is OK to be in the state of not knowing but there must be the willingness to question and keep questioning … that is where the power is.

No one can say he or she knows everything. Errrrrr wait … well, except for a guy whom I used to work with … he thinks that he knows everything but I don’t think so. I think half of what he said was untrue and the other half was rubbish. However, we did agree on one thing … it is best that we stay away from each other.

Those who think that they know everything … they are always a little too full of themselves believing that they are a little too clever for the good of others. Well, I am sure like me, you must have met one or two such people.

Anyway … don’t worry if you don’t know. Not knowing is powerful if you are willing to question, seek and find out. This is a change of mindset and there is nothing wrong in not knowing ... it is not a disadvantage. The power of not knowing drives us to be deliberately curious and if we are always in that state of mind, the potential of learning and knowing more is almost unlimited.

It is OK to say “I don’t know” … there are so many things in this world that we don’t know. There are new breakthroughs, sightings, findings, innovations and inventions every day and more to be discovered. Maybe we don’t know now but if we keep questioning ... we will find out and we will know more.

There are times when we question but we may not have the answers yet ... like for thousands of years, human asked why the sun disappears during a certain period … it was only not long ago that we were given the real answer of a solar eclipse. So, it is absolutely OK to question and not get the answers now … rather than given the answers and not allowed to question.

After I have retired, I asked myself … I have the luxury of time, living an easy and free lifestyle … what drives me now? What do I know, what can I do and what keeps me going? And I realised that even though I have lived more than half a century … I don’t know shit really.

But with the time I have (I think I have a good several years more to live), with the convenience of global travel, wide internet connection and communication ... plus the enormous capability of online search engines … I can question and I will question, find and seek what I do not know.

As you can see … it is not what I already know … it is what I don’t know that really drives me … taking me out further, keeping me active, spreading my variety, expanding my views and changing my thinking.

Hmmmm ... really ?

I don’t know.