08-29-2020, 10:07 PM
Round 2 because I feel like making long, rambling posts to compensate for long silence. This post is more on point though.
I'm sure this had been always true but I started noticing it only recently. Maybe it's because I'm learning more now than ever before, or rather my range of topics has broadened significantly. Or maybe I have some more insights. I don't know. But hear me out.
When I get new information (or remind myself of an old one) what I do is I want to put it in the context of what I already now. More often than not it's like feeling the blanks or making a picture sharper. This is easy as the new pieces are not in vacuum. I can connect them to things that are already there.
But sometimes, very rarely in fact, I get pieces of knowledge that are very surprising. And it's not that they run against notions I held previously. Arguments and counterarguments are part of the discourse and they belong to the previous category. But there are these facts that are not only surprising, they feel like something I should have already known for a long time. They feel like glitches in the matrix. Did I forget about this? Was I ever aware of this but I disregarded that information? Or maybe world is shifting around me, I'm now in the darkest timeline but my mind is still in greener pastures timeline.
The latest of these was about how Botswana is one of the richest countries in Africa. I know perfectly well since being a kid there Botswana is. I know a bit about Africa and its economy. I know of successes of counties like South Africa, Gabon, Rwanda, Libya before it was blown to pieces... But Botswana? Never thought of it in this was. But here it was. Or how many former French colonies are using the same currency. I was reading about French influence in the sub-Saharan Africa and their neocolonialism but never did I hear about a single currency (or rather 2 currencies). You'd figure they'd mention that, no? Maybe they didn't, maybe I skipped it somehow. I don't know, I'll never know and all I can do is add this new information into my stockpile and compare and contrast any new information with these ones as well.
It's just weird like that sometimes, that's all.
I'm sure this had been always true but I started noticing it only recently. Maybe it's because I'm learning more now than ever before, or rather my range of topics has broadened significantly. Or maybe I have some more insights. I don't know. But hear me out.
When I get new information (or remind myself of an old one) what I do is I want to put it in the context of what I already now. More often than not it's like feeling the blanks or making a picture sharper. This is easy as the new pieces are not in vacuum. I can connect them to things that are already there.
But sometimes, very rarely in fact, I get pieces of knowledge that are very surprising. And it's not that they run against notions I held previously. Arguments and counterarguments are part of the discourse and they belong to the previous category. But there are these facts that are not only surprising, they feel like something I should have already known for a long time. They feel like glitches in the matrix. Did I forget about this? Was I ever aware of this but I disregarded that information? Or maybe world is shifting around me, I'm now in the darkest timeline but my mind is still in greener pastures timeline.
The latest of these was about how Botswana is one of the richest countries in Africa. I know perfectly well since being a kid there Botswana is. I know a bit about Africa and its economy. I know of successes of counties like South Africa, Gabon, Rwanda, Libya before it was blown to pieces... But Botswana? Never thought of it in this was. But here it was. Or how many former French colonies are using the same currency. I was reading about French influence in the sub-Saharan Africa and their neocolonialism but never did I hear about a single currency (or rather 2 currencies). You'd figure they'd mention that, no? Maybe they didn't, maybe I skipped it somehow. I don't know, I'll never know and all I can do is add this new information into my stockpile and compare and contrast any new information with these ones as well.
It's just weird like that sometimes, that's all.
For not by numbers of men, nor by measure of body, but by valor of soul is war to be decided.
~Belisarius, the last Roman
Certitude is for the puzzle-box logicians and girls of white glamour [...]. I am a letter written in uncertainty.
~36 Lessons of Vivec, Sermon 4
~Belisarius, the last Roman
Certitude is for the puzzle-box logicians and girls of white glamour [...]. I am a letter written in uncertainty.
~36 Lessons of Vivec, Sermon 4
