I turned 50 yesterday.
Trevor Dunn has a slogan on his website: “The more you know, the less you think you know.”
I can’t claim I even know what he means, for sure. But it’s similar to my own situation:
The older I get, the less I know.
It’s not that I haven’t learned things. I’m continually expanding my knowledge.*
It’s that I realize how few things I really do understand.
I’m confident about the first two semesters of music theory. Beyond that, my brains are questionable.
My girlfriend points out that “I don’t know” is my go-to answer.
I feel like Arthur Dent in Mostly Harmless, stranded on a primitive, alien planet — and the only technology he could contribute to their society was making sandwiches.
I watched part of an interview with Peter Thiel. I heard he’s a supervillain, or more specifically, a right-wing technocrat billionaire determined to destroy democracy.
Maybe he is (seems so), but I wasn’t impressed by anything he said. The phrase, “not a serious thinker,” came to mind. If I didn’t already know, I’d guess he was the manager of a Walgreens.
Joke’s on me: I can’t even identify the qualities that make someone worth $25,000,000,000.†
And I admit I would be even less charismatic and coherent if Joe Rogan forced me to sweat and stammer in front of 11 million people.
I think back to 2005, when I was 30. I felt like I understood “the scene.”
Part of that is because my map of the world was smaller. Information scarcity.
Twenty years later, I can’t get my arms around everything. There’s so much “content.” (With AI, I suspect we’re even entering a Post-Content World.)
What does it even mean to be cutting-edge?‡
The other day, I browsed through random Patreon creators. Who are these people? And dang, I’m one of them. I can’t get a grasp of what is going on out there. It’s too much.
The map is now too big.
No more information scarcity.
But I’m pretty sure of this: we all know a lot less than we think we do. Most of our thoughts and beliefs and behaviors were made up by someone else. We’re copying machines of TV show slang, memes, and political slogans.
As an old man, at least I can say I understand this.
*This week, I’m fascinated by the difference between Germanic and Latinate. “Expanding my knowledge” — how very Latinate!
†Maybe his investing skills and his understanding of politics are not coupled. Maybe it’s a good example of compartmentalized intelligence.
‡It could be The Elephant Graveyard.