I look forward to purchasing and reading your book when it is published. It can't fail to be interesting based on your posts under Walking Away. And please make sure that all of us know when the book comes out.
These thoughts are very true and not unique to even our times. If you read John Henry Newman’s “The Idea of a University” he discusses the same concept. Your post reminds me of a poem I wrote a while back to grapple with this exact issue. I hope it’s ok to share it here:
The Glutton’s Education
Can he taste what he reads?
Does he even savor the sweet lessons he has heard?
Before mastering what he has he reaches for another more
His hunger is unquenchable
Yet the more he swallows the less he digests
How dreadful is his disposition
His beard is full of information
While greedily reaching for more
What a fool I am!
Did I not learn to finish my plate before reaching for another?
Should I not learn the basics before dreaming of mastery?
Master what you have before asking for more
The nutrition of knowledge comes from digestion not consumption
Learn from the wise the diet of understanding
Mastery comes from sipping the cup of the Wise
Erudition is eaten slowly at the table of the greats
The plate of the Scholar is balanced
It’s portioned and purposeful
The feast of the fool buckles under its weight
It’s a feast without taste
Full of sweets and the fool is full of cavities
Is it a wonder that delicacies taste rancid to him and empty calories like honey
He gulps Shakespeare and calls it dry
Swallows Sun Tzu and thinks it empty
Crunches through Charles Spurgeon and says it lacks texture
Ingests Scripture and immediately forgets
Be like the Scholar and not the glutton
Be slow in your learning
Learn your grammar before learning Scripture
Learn from the Greats before challenging them
Swirl knowledge in your mind before attempting to swallow it
Excellent article. It’s tempting as a human being to follow the people who believe the lies, because no one wants to be the “black sheep.” But I tell myself in those instances, when I am an old lady reflecting on my choices, I will be disappointed that I tried to appease them and didn’t follow my own moral compass which is ever present. People sometimes fear to admit it, but they are looking for people who tell the truth - and that’s why people who tell the truth get so much hate - because the truth triggers some deep insecurity even though it’s what they subconsciously wanted to hear all along.
I’ve had somewhat of the same thought recently. It feels we conflate our easy access to information with easy access to truth. The people I know and read who are dedicated to truth (like yourself!) all have an attitude of gratitude towards our ability to get information but a humility of how they use it
As always, great read. Thanks, Jared—I'm eagerly looking forward to reading your book.
Regarding what you mention, it reminds me of an expression used by older people in my country: "El que mucho abarca poco aprieta." It's like saying "He who embraces too much, squeezes little”
I have been watching John Vervaeke's lecture series on the meaning crisis, and in the video I watched just yesterday he referenced "On Bullshit" when speaking about Socrates's propensity to force people to recognize how often we bullshit ourselves. I think we as a society would do well to watch out for bullshit in ourselves and from others, and be more open to calling it out (and being called on it) in a respectful way.
Intellectual honesty is the 1 quality I look for the most in online content, and it's one of the reasons I was drawn to this substack (after watching your video on Stoicism). It's also why I love the Waking Up app and Sam Harris's interviews with other thinkers. I don't always agree with Sam, but I get a strong sense of his commitment to intellectual honesty. We need that. I don't mind if someone wants to speculate on things without strong evidence or understanding, so long as they are upfront about it.
Let's just all be clear about our ideas, where they are coming from, and what they are based on. And I think one obstacle to achieving this is what Vervaeke points to- how often we bullshit ourselves without even realizing it. Hard to be intellectually honest with others when we aren't fully honest with ourselves.
It would be good if people explicitly said 'These are my initial thoughts, something I suspect could be true but I can't fully support' rather than making bold assertions without evidence or argumentation.
Yes, not only would that be very helpful for public discourse in general, it's something that I think would cause me personally to take even somewhat dubious-seeming ideas more seriously than if they were presented as fact.
I look forward to purchasing and reading your book when it is published. It can't fail to be interesting based on your posts under Walking Away. And please make sure that all of us know when the book comes out.
“Staying in your lane” is important. It’s a discipline. It can be a labor of love.
These thoughts are very true and not unique to even our times. If you read John Henry Newman’s “The Idea of a University” he discusses the same concept. Your post reminds me of a poem I wrote a while back to grapple with this exact issue. I hope it’s ok to share it here:
The Glutton’s Education
Can he taste what he reads?
Does he even savor the sweet lessons he has heard?
Before mastering what he has he reaches for another more
His hunger is unquenchable
Yet the more he swallows the less he digests
How dreadful is his disposition
His beard is full of information
While greedily reaching for more
What a fool I am!
Did I not learn to finish my plate before reaching for another?
Should I not learn the basics before dreaming of mastery?
Master what you have before asking for more
The nutrition of knowledge comes from digestion not consumption
Learn from the wise the diet of understanding
Mastery comes from sipping the cup of the Wise
Erudition is eaten slowly at the table of the greats
The plate of the Scholar is balanced
It’s portioned and purposeful
The feast of the fool buckles under its weight
It’s a feast without taste
Full of sweets and the fool is full of cavities
Is it a wonder that delicacies taste rancid to him and empty calories like honey
He gulps Shakespeare and calls it dry
Swallows Sun Tzu and thinks it empty
Crunches through Charles Spurgeon and says it lacks texture
Ingests Scripture and immediately forgets
Be like the Scholar and not the glutton
Be slow in your learning
Learn your grammar before learning Scripture
Learn from the Greats before challenging them
Swirl knowledge in your mind before attempting to swallow it
This is a path of meditation
This is the path to growth
This is the etiquette of God’s table
Where he feeds his students
Where he equips his soldiers
Where he sustains his saints
Excellent article. It’s tempting as a human being to follow the people who believe the lies, because no one wants to be the “black sheep.” But I tell myself in those instances, when I am an old lady reflecting on my choices, I will be disappointed that I tried to appease them and didn’t follow my own moral compass which is ever present. People sometimes fear to admit it, but they are looking for people who tell the truth - and that’s why people who tell the truth get so much hate - because the truth triggers some deep insecurity even though it’s what they subconsciously wanted to hear all along.
I’ve had somewhat of the same thought recently. It feels we conflate our easy access to information with easy access to truth. The people I know and read who are dedicated to truth (like yourself!) all have an attitude of gratitude towards our ability to get information but a humility of how they use it
As always, great read. Thanks, Jared—I'm eagerly looking forward to reading your book.
Regarding what you mention, it reminds me of an expression used by older people in my country: "El que mucho abarca poco aprieta." It's like saying "He who embraces too much, squeezes little”
That's a good phrase.
Great read. A lot of it hit home for me and is profound.
I have been watching John Vervaeke's lecture series on the meaning crisis, and in the video I watched just yesterday he referenced "On Bullshit" when speaking about Socrates's propensity to force people to recognize how often we bullshit ourselves. I think we as a society would do well to watch out for bullshit in ourselves and from others, and be more open to calling it out (and being called on it) in a respectful way.
Intellectual honesty is the 1 quality I look for the most in online content, and it's one of the reasons I was drawn to this substack (after watching your video on Stoicism). It's also why I love the Waking Up app and Sam Harris's interviews with other thinkers. I don't always agree with Sam, but I get a strong sense of his commitment to intellectual honesty. We need that. I don't mind if someone wants to speculate on things without strong evidence or understanding, so long as they are upfront about it.
Let's just all be clear about our ideas, where they are coming from, and what they are based on. And I think one obstacle to achieving this is what Vervaeke points to- how often we bullshit ourselves without even realizing it. Hard to be intellectually honest with others when we aren't fully honest with ourselves.
It would be good if people explicitly said 'These are my initial thoughts, something I suspect could be true but I can't fully support' rather than making bold assertions without evidence or argumentation.
Yes, not only would that be very helpful for public discourse in general, it's something that I think would cause me personally to take even somewhat dubious-seeming ideas more seriously than if they were presented as fact.