I was trying to articulate a philosophy for the courses I teach and accidentally wrote 10 non-exhaustive principles for life, which are also lessons in humility. It will not be surprising if the humble wonder practice by John Vervaeke shaped these ideas.
- There is no shortcut to deep understanding
- Of a domain, especially in an interdisciplinary setting
- With communities engaged in an evolving dialogue
- There is no shortcut to being skillful at something
- The journey from novice to expert is not linear, however, the “interest compounds”
- The journey need not be painful, but it can be seriously playful, a source of wonder and meaning
- Without skin in the game, we can’t claim we truly get something
- Without a vision which is flexible enough, but at the same time long-lived:
- In the case of rigidity - there is a risk of being stuck, pursue obsessively, counterproductively the wrong thing
- In the case of everything goes - there is a risk of wandering aimlessly and not finding a home
- Fixating on beliefs and propositional knowing (the facts!) is counterproductive. Which should put into question all written above
- Fixating on skills makes you lose the grasp of the big picture
John Vervaeke’s Humble Wonder
Check out John Vervaeke’s After Socrates, Lecture 2.
Practicing the Socratic learned ignorance about the self:
- There is so much I do not know about myself because of all of the [combinatorially explosive] facts.
- There is so much I shall never know about myself because of all of the fate.
- There is so much I refuse to see about myself because of all of my foolishness.
- There is so much I am unable to see about myself because of all of my faults.
Practicing the learned ignorance about the world:
- There is so much I do not know about the world because of all of the facts.
- There is so much I shall never know about the world because of all of the fate.
- There is so much I refuse to see about the world because of all of my foolishness.
- There is so much I am unable to see about the world because of all of my faults.