Post 2321
- 8 years and 225 days since I started this blog -
Daily Comment
I have stopped believing that I know things.
I realized this today at my weekly dinner/music trivia night with my friend Al.
Al thought I knew a lot about music. I thought I knew a lot about some music, but knew I was ignorant of certain genres, and modern (say, the past thirty years) music in general.
What the music trivia game has shown was that we both overestimated my knowledge.
It is my understanding that this is a common human flaw. We tend to think we know a lot about what we know about, and we're generally wrong.
You can know a lot about a specific thing, but even slight generalization from that thing leads to overestimating our knowledge.
The other thing is, we 'know' some things that are just plain wrong. Why we have this misinformation doesn't matter. Certainly, some of it comes from assumptions that what is true for one thing is true for another; that we can correctly deduce information from a limited base of knowledge, and, of course, from being outright misinformed in the first place.
It's all gotten worse thanks to the internet, the greatest source of information humans have ever known, and also an endless source of misinformation disguised as truth.
So I have come to mistrust my knowledge - and yours, too.
If we don't know what we don't know, and some of what we do know is incorrect, knowledge may not be the best way to decide what actions to take.
I'm grateful to at least have a bit of an understanding of the limits of what I know.
Food and Diet
I realized this today at my weekly dinner/music trivia night with my friend Al.
Al thought I knew a lot about music. I thought I knew a lot about some music, but knew I was ignorant of certain genres, and modern (say, the past thirty years) music in general.
What the music trivia game has shown was that we both overestimated my knowledge.
It is my understanding that this is a common human flaw. We tend to think we know a lot about what we know about, and we're generally wrong.
You can know a lot about a specific thing, but even slight generalization from that thing leads to overestimating our knowledge.
The other thing is, we 'know' some things that are just plain wrong. Why we have this misinformation doesn't matter. Certainly, some of it comes from assumptions that what is true for one thing is true for another; that we can correctly deduce information from a limited base of knowledge, and, of course, from being outright misinformed in the first place.
It's all gotten worse thanks to the internet, the greatest source of information humans have ever known, and also an endless source of misinformation disguised as truth.
So I have come to mistrust my knowledge - and yours, too.
If we don't know what we don't know, and some of what we do know is incorrect, knowledge may not be the best way to decide what actions to take.
I'm grateful to at least have a bit of an understanding of the limits of what I know.
Today's Weight: 203.7 lbs.
Previous Weight (8/12/19): 204.8 lbs.
Net Loss/Gain: - 1.1 lbs.
Diet Comment
Food Log
Breakfast
3:40pm:
Lunch
6:40pm, at the Listening room: Hummus platter: Garlic hummus topped with Mediterranean tomato and cucumber salad with a sprinkle of feta, served with crackers and pita.
Dinner
1:45am: Halo top non-dairy ice cream and two Quest bars.
Liquid Intake
3:40pm:
 |
| Burger with salsa on faux rice pilaf (riced cauliflower, sautéed onions and peppers). |
6:40pm, at the Listening room: Hummus platter: Garlic hummus topped with Mediterranean tomato and cucumber salad with a sprinkle of feta, served with crackers and pita.
Dinner
1:45am: Halo top non-dairy ice cream and two Quest bars.
Liquid Intake
Espressos: 1; Coffee: 20 oz.; Water: 84+ oz.; a Jim Beam and a Maker's Mark on the rocks.
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