The Certain Uncertainty Principle

I think that the more we learn, the less confident we become.

I think that macroscopically this idea could be applied to humanity's transition from religion to science. When we knew less we thought things happened because there was a all-knowing God that controlled our fates. Now that we now about DNA, bacteria and other complexities of the world, we can't be as certain that we aren't all alone.

Microscopically the idea could apply to a single man's life. A naive young man is full of confidence and bravado, but a hardened older man is wise and tempered.

I heard Andrew Denton say that there should be a University where students graduate when they admit that they don't know anything. He knows what I'm talking about. It is to learn so much that there is always an alternative solution to suggest. A myriad of possibilities leading to intellectual confusion.

I call this phenomenon The Certain Uncertainty Principle. This principle could be a negative influence for us, but I think there is one thing that turns it into a positive.

Can it be denied that we all possess a degree of innate wisdom? Can children not smell a lie and find the truth in complex situations? I think this innate wisdom allows us to see through the fog of a thousand alternate solutions. An innate wisdom to find parsimony.I think that with learning it is easy to forget this innate wisdom that we all possess as children.

True geniuses are those of us who have learned enough to become experts and then reintroduced themselves to their innate wisdom. These true geniuses possess Informed Wisdom.

I remember reading a Pablo Picasso quote saying that as a child he could paint like Rembrant, but that it took him a lifetime to learn to paint like a child.

I know exactly what he meant.