Tag: belief

The Unknown Knowns

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There are known knowns. There are known unknowns. But there are also unknown unknowns. There are things we don’t know we don’t know.

Donald Rumsfeld

I recently came across this quote by Donald Rumsfeld, the former American politician. Although this quote by itself is quite enlightening – highlighting the limits of our knowledge, keeping us in check, lest we become over-confident and forget that no matter how much we know, there’s always more to know – it is not what today’s post is about.

So, why did I mention this quote? Well, as you were reading it, you might have also noticed something like I did. The quote talks about “known knowns”, “known unknowns”, and “unknown unknowns”. But there’s another category – “unknown knowns” – that’s conspicuous by its absence here.

And what exactly are these “unknown knowns”? Well, by their very definition, we can not know them! But even though we can not know or observe them directly, we can feel them. These things fall in the category of intuition, of faith, of belief.

This will be subjective to everyone, and many people might not even be able to relate to this, but if I talk about myself, there are things I just somehow “know” – there’s strong faith, belief even about certain things, which can not be justified or proved, based on empirical evidence, observed by our five senses.

It is these things that I refer to as the “unknown knowns” – “unknown”, because we don’t exactly know about how these things work, how they affect other things, how they came to be, etc., and “known” because our faith in them is so strong, that we know that they are true, that they do happen, even though we may not know how they happen. 

It’s a complicated thing to try and explain in words. Let see if some examples might help. Of course, different people will have such faith in different things, but still, here are some examples: belief in a higher power, in luck or destiny, in the karmic law, in the power of love, in your dreams of achieving something, or even simply in a better future, etc. We might not have any concrete evidence to believe in these things, yet some of us do. We don’t know what that higher power is (I’m not necessarily talking about God here), but in our heart, we just know that it is there. That’s what makes these things the “unknown knowns”.

Reading that quote above, I was reminded that we live in a society that focuses so much on the knowns / unknowns in the traditional sense – where things can be proved and disproved using cold logic and facts – but we hardly put in enough effort to develop this other way of “sensing” things, which sometimes I feel is very important if we have to survive in this world.

Again, I may not have any way to prove this, but I know my life is better because of my faith in these “unknown knowns”.

What about you?

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Photo by Katie Drazdauskaite @ Unsplash

Have A Little Faith, Please?

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Many of us have probably faced situations where we are at a crossroads in life – we need to make choices that could significantly, and irrevocably, alter our life from there on out.

It’s tough to make those choices, knowing full well that the wrong choice could have a very negative impact on your life. Sometimes, you even wish you didn’t have to make that choice. But you are at that crossroad, and you must choose. Examples of such cases include committing to a relationship, changing jobs or giving up a well-paying job to follow a passion full-time, deciding to raise a child, etc.

It takes courage to make a choice at such a time. Maybe even a leap of faith. Whatever you may want to call it, it doesn’t come easy. You are excited about starting a new chapter in your life, but you are also scared of the uncertainty of success in case you do take the right path, and of the certainty of failure in case you do not; you want to make sure whatever choice you are making is for the right reason, but it is hardly ever easy to do so given so many factors that go into making that choice. Maybe you have been seduced by the hype around the whole thing. Maybe you are just doing it because everyone else is doing it. Maybe you are doing it for the money, or on a whim, or out of ego, etc. When it comes to justifying a decision, we could fool ourselves into believing whatever we want to believe, while the actual reason could remain something else. That is why, when making a choice, it is important, to me at least, that the driving factor behind that choice is “valid” and “reasonable”, and not just something superficial. To sift through all this, takes a lot of thinking and effort, so much so that at times, it can even be a struggle.

Of course, there are people who are quite sure of themselves and their choices. They don’t worry about so many things; they can just “jump in”. But for the rest of us, who are unsure of themselves, it’s a very challenging period. We overthink, we try to chart out possible outcomes and contingency plans, we need to mentally prepare ourselves to face the stark possibility of failure, and to temper our hopes and expectations in case of success, etc.

It’s not easy, but we do it. Somehow. We do our best to gather information, analyze it, and arrive at a decision. We go over it again and again. But finally, we decide. And in that moment, we think we’ll be okay with whatever happens after that. We can’t control everything, but we have done what we can for now, and we are happy with our choice.

But we are only human. When the stakes are high, we do look for support from our family. The support that we seek could be in the form of money, or legs in the field, or setting us up with the right contacts, or sharing their knowledge and experience, etc.. But mostly, it’s just emotional support that we seek – we just want to know that they understand us, and our decisions, and that they’ll be okay with however things turn out, because they believe in us, and in our ability to take the right call.

I wish I had that right now. Just a little faith, a bit of belief. In me, in my ability to make my own life’s decisions. 

I understand that my family is acting out of love and concern for me, and I do appreciate that. But there comes a time, when you need them to let go, to let you make your own mistakes and learn from them. This echoes something I had written a couple of years ago. Seems like nothing has changed on that front during this time. It seems that in my family’s eyes, I’ll always remain someone who’s not smart or capable enough to decide what’s good for him.

And it’s not just about being concerned about a risky decision. That is only natural when you love someone. What I’m really pissed about is that my family can’t even understand the reason I’m making that choice. They are assuming all kinds of frivolous reasons for it, which are far from the truth. The thing pinching me most is that they still don’t get me. Will they ever? If your family can’t, who can?

Fortunately or unfortunately, I’m a man of my own convictions. This risky choice of mine may well come back to bite me in the ass, or it may pay good dividends. After thinking about it and doing the best I can to arrive at a decision, I’m willing to take that chance. But it would’ve been nice to have your loved ones support you in that decision.

* * *

Sometimes, I wonder what my life would’ve been like if I had people backing me, who had faith in me. Not just on this occasion, but in life in general. I know people whose families have that kind of faith in them, and these people always seem to be quite confident and sure of themselves. It could just be a coincidence, but I have a feeling that it is not.

I guess for the rest of us, constantly fighting to stand up for our beliefs, and to prove ourselves is the only way to survive. Maybe one day that will change?

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Photo by Simon Rae on Unsplash

How Old Are you?

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You are as young as your faith, as old as your doubt; as young as your self-confidence, as old as your fear; as young as your hope, as old as your despair.

– Samuel Ullman

Most of us must have heard of the oft-repeated phrase: “Age is just a number!” What it’s meant to imply is that our “age” is not defined by the number of years that we’ve been alive. But this phrase also doesn’t specify what, then, is “age” defined by?

I think this quote by Samuel Ullman very cleverly tells us what our “age” really is – a measure of the impact of our experiences.

I like the juxtapositions presented by the author – faith vs doubt, self-confidence vs fear, hope vs despair, and the way he related these to one’s “age”.

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The Most Important Thing To Know

A Wondering Wanderer1 Comment

Recently, one thought has been popping up in my mind repeatedly. And it happens at all sorts of time – when driving, when walking, even when talking.

Not that I’m complaining though. In my somewhat routine life, I tend to forget a very important thing, maybe, even the most important thing. But I’m glad that these days, the thought has been staying fresh in my memory through repetition.

And that thought is:

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Better Than False Ideas…

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The above quote has perhaps never been more relevant than today. In the age of continuous media propaganda, where it’s difficult to make sense of what is true and what isn’t, it would do us good to remember this. We should think twice before blindly believing whatever bullshit we are fed.

The thing with having false notions about our environment is that it biases us against the truth. Once we think we know something, when information to the contrary presents itself, we try to distort that information to fit in with our preconceived views. This leads to more confusion and moves us further away from the truth.

It also leads to frustration and animosity, because we are continuously faced with opposing views that require efforts to accommodate to our world-view, and sometimes, because of such a continuous onslaught, we might get a feeling of antagonism from those around us, when they actually may only be trying to tell us the truth.

That’s why I think it’s important that not only do we do our best not to get seduced by wrong beliefs, but also that we remember that no matter what we believe, there’s always a possibility that it may not be the most accurate picture of the truth, and a better explanation of the facts could still be out there.

It is always better to have no ideas than false ones; to believe nothing, than to believe what is wrong.

– Thomas Jefferson

 

When Sides Are Already Taken…

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Came across this article the other day in the newspaper. Have to say, the author, Amulya Gopalakrishnan, has made a very acute observation into human behaviour here. And she’s done a great job putting those thoughts into words.

The gist of the post, which I strongly encourage you to check out in detail, is that there’s only so much that we can do to convince people who already have quite strong convictions about the things that they believe in. They may be wrong, and you can provide all the facts and proofs in the world, but it’s unlikely that any of that will have any significant impact in changing those people’s thoughts.

Instead, the author suggests a different approach:

We all protect our identities; to detach a belief from a person, one needs to sever the link between the attitude and the holder’s self-image. We need to tell the story differently. Point-scoring does the opposite, it makes people descend further into their trenches.

Do check out the complete article here.

Belief, In The Face Of Experience

A Wondering WandererLeave a comment

Recently, something happened, and it brought to mind (again!) an old conflict that I’ve never fully been able to resolve. So, I thought I’d talk about it here, in case someone comes across it, and can provide some additional insights into it.

I think we all have some beliefs about life – how things are, how they should be, how one should react to and approach life, etc. And the thought that I’m struggling with is this: What happens when your beliefs conflict with what you observe around yourself? Do you change your beliefs and approach to life? More importantly, should you?

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Just Chance? Or More..?

A Wondering WandererLeave a comment

Have you ever experienced something where seemingly random things “speak” to you in some way that’s very relevant to you at that particular point of time?

To illustrate: I’ve recently been trying to choose between two options, but haven’t been able to decide one way or another because both options have some pros and cons, and I’m not really able to pick one option over the other. So, I’ve been stuck at this point for a few days, going nowhere. Then, I come across this:Read More »