The world does not become less mysterious because humans become better at describing parts of it.
CREATIVITY
WHAT THIS MEANS
Describing part of something is not the same as accounting for it. Every advance in understanding opens more questions than it closes, and the volume of what remains unknown has grown alongside knowledge rather than shrinking. Anyone who tells you the interesting questions have been settled is describing the limits of their own reading rather than the state of the world.
When you feel that everything worth wondering about has been explained, go find the edge of a field you know nothing about. The open questions are always there, usually more numerous and stranger than the answered ones, and they are easy to find if you look.
A QUESTION TO SIT WITH
What are you certain you understand that you have only ever described?
MORE IN LEARNING & CURIOSITY
- One week somewhere new can feel longer than a month at home. Memories are how your brain measures time.
- When the cook is gone, the recipe goes with them unless someone wrote it down. Be the one who writes it down.
- Some mysteries deserve investigation without demanding that mystery disappear completely.
Free, with nothing to buy inside it.