Learning Leads to Paranoia

Learning for learning's sake is now a huge movement. The quest to conquer all the knowledge of the universe has been within the hearts of men since the beginning. Interestingly enough, the amount of human knowledge doubles every year and by 2020 it will double every 72 days! This type of growth in human knowledge can be very overwhelming to those of us who are on a bloodhound quest to find knowledge and wisdom. The fact that there is more and more knowledge being produced/discovered daily means that every second I am not learning, I am "falling behind". We all know what it feels like to miss a week of school and upon coming back, find that we are way behind and spend the next few days playing "catch-up". Considering this against the vastness of the knowledge of humanity, it adds a sense of PARANOIA when one takes on the task of becoming "ENLIGHTENED". It sparks the thought "I am never going to be able to catch up."

Seem familiar?

There are 534,259 books published per year in the US & UK alone! That is 1,464 per day, 61 per hour, and 1 per minute! I don't care how fast you can speed read, there is no way to read that much material. It is clearly impossible for any one person to attain all the knowledge of humanity in the span of one lifetime. I am not saying that because of this impossibility, we should just throw in the proverbial towel. By no means! I am simply stating that one must be selective about what he/she decides to fill their head with. Cooking recipes, celebrity trivia, historical facts, mathematical equations, statistics of human knowledge...etc. There is a (literally) never-ending avalanche of knowledge piled upon us daily. The person who spends all their day trying to be current on subjects that do not directly effect him/her is actually, and quite unknowingly, wasting time. It amazes me how much attention is paid to celebrities who have no real value to anyone, besides those making money directly from their exposure. This is an obvious example, but what about learning stuff like how to write code? or how to build a raised box garden? or how to replace a broken power steering belt? Even better, how to achieve spiritual enlightenment and find your purpose by some never ending scholastic effort.

The examples can go on and on. The point is there are people out there who will have you believe that the "pursuit of knowledge is an end in itself." This presupposes that questions are NOT meant to be answered. Rather, they hold that questions produce even more questions and the pursuit of these questions is an answer itself. I am not sure if that just sounds ridiculous to me or if anyone else sees the problem with such statements. I am not going to beat around the bush. Did you know there are people who will write code for you, build fixtures, and maintenance your car?! The fact is, questions were made to be answered! And much to the dismay of many of these time-wasting fantasy chasers, much of the knowledge one hopes to attain is old news and has been discovered by someone else. If you are reading a book, guess what?...it's old knowledge. So, unless the insight you gain will directly effect the way you live, it becomes worthless.

Finally, if you don't believe me, do some research and take time to examine human fulfillment and success in others' lives. Those who have found fulfillment and success are those who realize their limitations and allow others to "know for them". Someone who is constantly chasing the next "mental high" through some sort of enlightenment will undoubtedly be sucked dry of any driving force by a never ending search. There will always be something "new" to learn. Word to the WISE (fools hear no threat), don't make yourself worrisome and anxious with the pursuit of all of humanity's knowledge. Get specialized knowledge that will actually produce the life you want, rather than generalized knowledge that leads only to more questions and confusion.