ignorance

Just finished reading about the Dunning-Kruger effect. A quick description would be something along the lines of overconfident ignorance. Basically, any area where we feel confident is likely to be an area where we think we know a lot simply because we aren't yet aware of how much we don't know. Our ignorance of the true breadth of the subject has us convinced we're an expert. This happened with my initial foray into spirituality - when I got a big fuckin spiritual ego before realizing just how much there was out there to learn.

This is how most humans are with anything in the universe. We think our educations have taught us something of significance and we form entire worldviews around relatively miniscule amounts of data. Since we receive basically the same education as those around us we come to feel confident in what we think we know, but when any of us actually narrow in on a particular field we quickly realize that we barely know a thing. The fact that most of us feel entitled to argue opinions on almost any topic with barely any information shows how comfortably we operate in a state of overconfident ignorance. We think we know better because we aren't aware of how much we don't know.

I also read something that talked about how attempts to convince others of our views doesn't work because we all find evidence and reasons to support our feelings. External circumstances and evidence don't matter nearly as much as the underlying feelings and motivations of the individual, and what they say only reveals those feelings, not any kind of objective truth.

It all keeps coming back to subjectivity. The world as we experience it is each of our own subjective creations. We do not experience an objective reality. It is simply not possible - there's too much data and it's all being filtered through subjective filters.

I am not absolved from this. I too am experiencing a subjective reality of my own making. And that reality can change in an instant - the instant I decide to acknowledge that subjectivity and start responding to my own feelings rather than what's presented by the people around me. The instant I decide to start trusting myself, while also being fully aware that I don't know anything and neither does anyone else.

We're all fumbling in the dark. If this is the fate of all people, and if anyone who seems confident is simply delusional and projecting, then I might as well do things in my own way. I might as well believe in myself. I might as well enjoy myself. I might as well express myself. I might as well be myself. I might as well create a reality around me that reflects my inner subjective truth. I might as well stop trying to be 100% certain and just go with what I've got. I might as well start living, right here and right now.