I’ve noticed that over the years my ability to suffer fools has gone down exponentially. I wouldn’t say that I have become crotchety or capricious. It’s just that certain things make me a bit kooky. For example, when someone makes the same mistake over and over and over again, that kills me. When I see people intentionally being mean to others, I cringe. If someone claims that they know something outside of their field of expertise, especially after experts have weighed in, that puts me over the edge.
One of the best pieces of life advice that I could ever mete out (though it’s a learned behaviour) is this: knowing what you know is important but even more important is the ability to know what you don’t know. Small failures allow you to see this and help you to correct your course or input before a large, fatal mistake does you in. Always take the advice of experts unless you have empirical evidence to the contrary.
Early in the year, I read a great blog post describing the 5 simple steps to great living. It was live your life the Socrates style. Here are the 5 steps and the link to the more detailed posting. Number 2 is all about know what you don’t know.
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1. Live into your vision.
Be as you wish to seem.
~Socrates
2. Know your limitations.
I know that I am intelligent, because I know that I know nothing.
~Socrates
3. Expand your horizons
Education is the kindling of a flame, not the filling of a vessel.
~Socrates
4. Whatever you have is enough
He who is not contented with what he has, would not be contented with what he would like to have.
~Socrates
5. Define what you want.
The beginning of wisdom is the definition of terms.
~Socrates
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