The More I Know The Less Sure I Am
Where Personal Growth Is Concerned, You Simply Can’t Know It All
There’s a phenomenon in the psychology where the more you research about the mind and your existence, the less you feel you actually know.
This isn’t new; in fact, Socrates, the Ancient Greek Philosopher, once said:
“To Know is to Know That You Know Nothing. That is the Meaning of True Knowledge.” — Socrates.
Seems like a paradox, doesn’t it?
Growing up, we’re taught in many ways that knowledge brings certainty, which, in turn, leads to success. It’s a principle that underpins our masculine-led society.
But it’s a principle that only goes so far, particularly when it comes to self-development and the Universe at large. You can master the financial market your corporate job demands of you, but reading 100 psychology books isn’t going to explain to you who you are.
I know, I’ve tried!
Topics of the mind are just too complex, with too many unknowns. The most astute scientists don’t understand consciousness, and the psychological theories our beloved psychologists originated are merely that, theories.
This doesn’t mean the theories don’t hold truths, or that we can’t believe in them, but we risk ignorance when we don’t question them, and close our minds to further ideas.
Intellectual Humility: The Breakdown Of Ignorance
Ignorance arises from our inability to consider alternative perspectives despite ample evidence, and much harm has come to our world as a result.
On an individual level, our ignorance’s risk mental, physical and spiritual stagnation. If we’re unwilling to consider that we might be wrong at times and that we may not know it all, then how can we grow?
This is especially true when our beliefs have been hard-wired by painful experiences in our past. We’ll be prone to misjudgments and limited beliefs, that without awareness, risk sabotaging our own happiness.
Intellectual humility refers to the understanding that we may not know everything, or much at all — and that’s ok.
This doesn’t mean we resign ourselves to hopelessness or stop believing in what we believe; it doesn’t mean we stop pursuing growth or answers.
It means being ok with the fact that there are some things in life we may never truly know. This is part of the great mystery of being a human.
The Freedom of Humility, and The Comfort of Not Knowing.
In my early 20s, I went through a period of bad OCD. Termed existential OCD, I was fixated on the “big questions”: Why are we here? Is there a god? Am I real?
The prospect of life lacking meaning, or being a simulation, or there being “no god”, was incredibly anxiety-inducing. No matter how much I obsessed, how much I checked my feelings to see if I “felt real”, or how much I deep dived into the literature, I could find no answer that felt right.
In fact, as it does in OCD, obsessing only made my anxiety worse.
My recovery came in the realisation that I had to get comfortable not knowing. I am a perfectionist. Driven by the discomfort of an apparent unknown, I will search and search and search until I wrap myself in a bind and get sick.
Whilst this is an extreme example of how uncertainty can drive us wild, it can apply to all of us.
I can see this applied to personal development and self-inquiry, too. Sometimes I’ll deep dive my own psychology only to get lost. For every level I try to understand, there is another level below it and for every answer there is another question.
There’s too much nuance, too much complexity, and anyway, when you think you know who you are, life will throw you a curveball and throw your belief system out a window.
When we detach from the idea that we know it all — or can know it all — we experience psychological freedom.
We become more innovative, curious, and present to the ideas of those around us.
We don’t get lost in the labyrinth of our own mind, trying to intellectualise who we are in attempt to solve the problem that is us.
This, again, doesn’t mean we don’t invest in our self-development, but we have to know when our need to intellectualise isn’t helping.
Can we practice humility, instead?
Maybe the point isn’t to search endlessly for who you are; maybe the self is so abstract that it can never be pinned down. As someone prone to getting lost in their mind, practicing present-moment awareness helps me move through life so much more than endless ruminations.
In a world built on a need to find them (and look how that’s turning out), I think we could all benefit from a little bit more humility.
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