My all time favorite “Stig Fact” from Top Gear is
“They say that he knows only two things about ducks…and both of them are wrong”
Which could qualify as knowing less than nothing about ducks 😁
Whenever I see this quote (or others like it) I hear it read in Bill’s voice from Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure.
Bill : Socrates [SOH -crates]- ’ the only true wisdom is knowing that you know nothing.
Ted: Dude, that’s us!
That’s it, no discussion.
There’s people who don’t understand what that means.
Everyone is just making it up as we go along.
Be skeptical of anyone who claims they have the answer.
42!
But who has the question?!
:P
I know you’re being cheeky, but we did get an answer to what the Ultimate Question was…
spoilerThe Ultimate Question “What do you get when you multiply six by nine” is found by Arthur Dent and Ford Prefect in The Restaurant at the End of the Universe.
I disagree. Most people seem dumb, but there are select few which are incredibly genius.
Like, I heard of a model theorist who produces quality papers every month or so. Then there is also Andrew Wiles, who proved Fermat’s last theorem through labyrinth of Langlands. The complexity and depth of the field is just insane.
There is a third way!
You thirst to know more but have a soul crushing deficit of self esteem and truly believe you’re incapable of anything more than menial labor. You remain with your thirst, not content with your ignorance, but unable to overcome the self image of “absolute moron with no place in the scientific community who must be narcissistic for even thinking he could be” and so you grow to hate yourself even more because of it!
…Err… Or so my friend says.
And for that matter, you don’t even have to pursue knowledge that will help you make money!
Taking a deep dive in some hobbies using free knowledge could very well enhance your life better than getting the masters degree and the promotion.
I was arguing with a engineer two weeks ago about systems. I never met him before. But he had a few drinks and interrupted our conversation. And I nearly lost my shit because of how confident this guy was speaking, saying obvious things and being vague, while not saying anything at all. Like, “This system isn’t good at all! We should all follow Clean Code principles!”
Then someone pulled me aside and said, “Go easy on the guy. He’s only been in the industry for a year.”
And I did feel bad. But also like, my dude… You are going to wake up to realizing you know nothing about everything.
You are going to wake up to realizing you know nothing about everything.
I wish I had your optimism about humanity.
I have come to realize a PhD just means you have spent a lot of time thinking about what you are doing.
Doesn’t mean what you are doing is smart really. Just well thought about.
If one thinks a lot, likes to learn and, maybe more important, thinks about knowledge and learning things, that person will probably get there.
A certain educational background probably helps but is neither required nor sufficient, IMHO.