Categories: Experiences and daily life; Human nature
Word count/read time: 355 words; 2 minutes
At a recent show a person asked me how much I knew about jewelry.
Not how many years of experience. Not wondering if I was a hobbyist
or professional. Not implying that I must know a lot (or a little, I can't
say for certain what they were thinking). The quick answer is that
I know enough to know that I don't know enough, i.e. I got a lot to learn.
But what is the real answer? And what does someone mean by "knowing" something:
Is it just knowledge or knowledge in action, like can I do what I know?
Are they looking for a percentage of my knowledge? Is it an invitation
for me to express confidence in my abilities, like they have an important question
or task and want to ensure they found the right person?
And what level or degree of knowledge? For instance, I know that doing
X to item Y will make Z happen but I don't
necessarily understand the science behind it like a post-doctorate
student would. Maybe I can't create A, B, and C in their entirety
but I understand how to use them, manipulate them, leverage them.
Is it really crucial to know such details or is it just the outcome
that matters?
Knowing how much I know would mean that I'd have to know what encompasses everything
there is to know before any number, quantity, or qualified answer becomes relevant.
Even then, the more you learn about something the more you
realize there is to learn.
So I might ever know only 1% for the entirety of my life
no matter when the question is posed. Am I happy with being a one-percenter?
Yep, all day long.
Here's a concept that is rather ironic, amusing, and moot at the same time.
Professionals (and some hobbyists and the layperson) pursue their favorite
subject in great detail.
They may devote their life to furthering their knowledge of a microcosmic aspect,
like the arrangement of the mitochondrial DNA within a specific cell structure.
It is so small as to be a "nothing."
They have successfully learned everything about nothing.
Posted by M: September 24, 2023
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