Most people may not know it. But YOU do. YOU… KNOW… when you know that you know. You just know it. And no matter what anyone else says or thinks they know, you know that you know you know; and that’s as golden as gets. Though it’s not without it’s challenges. Number one, you need to learn to and learn how to trust it. If you really know you know, then you know. And you know that. So forget about what other people say or claim to believe. You need to master the art of ignoring the various objections you may hear from others; for arguing about something you already know you know is a waste of precious time effort and energy. You will also want to cultivate a thick skin in order to handle the occasional attacks on your character by those whose insecurities compel them to resort to ad hominem falacies when confronted with people of superior intelligence.
Try to remember “the lowest common deniminator phenomenon”… Ie that there are billions of people on planet earth, and that most of them are either not so smart or not so bold as to stand up to the not so smart to defend the few who stick out because they know things most people don’t. Call it the law of crowds, or mob rules, or live and let die. It’s an unfortunate aspect of being alive in human form on planet earth that throughout recorded human history almost anyone who knew something valuable well before most others was usually mocked ridiculed attacked imprisoned or put to death because of it. Think Jesus Gandhi Gallileo Tesla Einstein or MLK. To name only a few.I’m sure there are thousands of examples. Knowing stuff can be dangerous.
In our own time names like David Icke or Richard Branson or even the late Steve Jobs come to mind. Without an ounce of brand loyalty nor any corporate sponsorship (I’m certainly not opposed to the latter though) take Steve Jobs for example simply because his story makes a great case to further the point. From the very beginning of the personal computer age to the present day, Jobs had numerous opponents objectors and competitors. Most notably Bill Gates and his fledgling Microsoft. It’s no secret anymore that Gates and company tricked deceived and stole many of the most important elements of their Windows OS from the more gullible Jobs and Wozniack(sp?) and their burgeoning Apple Computers OS. It’s also no secret that no matter how much one pays for a “Windows based PC”, it will never look or perform as well or as quickly or as efficiently as an Apple computer. And yet the majority of the aforementioned billions of people on planet earth still use said Windows based PCs instead of Apple.
Call it the law of the land. The idea of the masses of mediocrity controlling things in our world is so ingrained in all of us that as most people now know Steve Jobs was fired from his job as CEO of Apple even though it was his own company. Yet again, if Jobs suffered from anything besides the arrogance that often accompanies the intelligence of those who know they know that they know it was gullibility. Of course history eventually self corrected that injustice in the nick of time right before Apple was about to go bust and bringing him back on board not only saved Apple the company, it also revolutionized how nearly every person on earth lives works communicates and functions; along with half a dozen global industries as well. Steve Jobs and “what he knew” was vindicated in this case. But many aren’t.
And yet we cannot forget the more important point of the Steve Jobs story, that being that Microsoft branded Windows based computers still outsell the far superior Apple brand by at least 100 to 1. Truth be told those numbers may be much higher. The statistics aren’t as important as the phenomenon itself. It’s an anomaly that is as easily understandable, due to this “lowest common denominator phenom”, as it is surprising.
If you get this then you probably also get the gist of the importance of staying true to yourself when you know you know whatever it is that you know. But social pressures are often the straw that breaks the back of many of the smartest people in human society. Many play dumb to fit in. Pretending they don’t know what they know. Or at least don’t know as much of it as they do. Others simply give in to the threat of losing contact with others due to recognizing that if they stand tall and speak up about how much they know then they start to get verbally attacked by those around them. Sometimes those “others” can be the closest people in proximity to you. One’s own family or best friends.
People don’t like “know it alls”. And most of us simply don’t have the time nor the capactity to know it all. But if you know a lot about a thing or two you may have experienced this label being branded on you more than once in your life. It hurts. It’s not fun. People will accuse you of always thinking you’re right all the time. The problem is that you may well be right all the time because you may be one of the few who don’t ever speak about something unless you know for sure that you’re right. Or not. Only you know. But 99% of people don’t live this way. So they have no idea that it’s possible. Take a few days of silence and do nothing but listen to other people. Whether in person or on the Internet or the radio or the TV, most people just talk all the time regardless of whether they know what they’re talking about or not. If you’re one of the few who already know you know that you know then you know this already. Which means you also understand why the world we live in has always been so compromised mediocre and painful.
Most people are not half as interested in being right as they are to being heard. Which is why the world is filled with so much noise disguised as content. Erroneous soundbites created by misinformed (or worse yet, disinformed) propaganda machines. Mediocrity for the masses of mediocre. But again, if you’re one of the few who know, then you know this already. The secret is to do your best to disguise the fact that you know this so you can maintain a semblance of feeling and appearing as though you fit in.
Some people don’t recognize how often you confess to not knowing things so you can in turn ask about and then learn about whatever it is in that moment that you don’t think you know enough about. This is one of the tell-tale signs of a someone who knows a whole hell of a lot versus a pompous know it all who only thinks they know a lot. People who know a lot have no problem admitting when they dont know something. In fact they do it all the time. They remain in effect in a constant state of knowing how much they dont know and thus are always attempting to do something about it.
This is why — if you’re a long time reader of The Transcendence Diaries or just one of those who “know” — you may remember the old adage proffered here years ago stating that “Those who truly KNOW (all cap KNOW) know that they don’t know. (meaning they know that they don’t know much of anything and will therefore never truly KNOW) and thus this is how those who KNOW can recognize others who KNOW. By the fact that they know that they don’t really KNOW and they don’t mind admitting it. None of us do. This, it turns out, is just about the only thing there is to really know. Therefore if you’re ever in a position where you’re trying to figure out if someone really KNOWS, or if instead they’re just “smart” or know a lot, you can easily determine this by their willingness and/or capability to admit that they know that they don’t really KNOW. If you KNOW then you know what I’m talking about here. If not… Then, well, start taking a look at all the things you and everyone else doesn’t know. Soon you’ll discover that none of us really know much of anything. That’s the first step and the first major realization on the road to really KNOWING But of course that’s also our curse. It isnt easy knowing so much that you’ve reached the point where you know how much we still dont know. It makes social interactions with nearly everyone entirely unbearable. Your choice again is to pretend how little you know all the time in order to fit in, ie “playing dumb,” or being a flat out recluse or loner. But at least we know it. There’s a wee bit of solace and refuge in that.
And therein lies the challenge. Just by your very nature, even if you’ve perfected the art of dumbing down in order to fit in, you still may get attacked. It’s as if people can vibrationally pick up on the fact that you arent nearly as dumb and normal as you pretend to be. And to the other strategy, just being yourself and boldly going through life hoping that over the years you will meet others at the same level as you, even when you confess to not knowing things you dont know, you still get accused of always thinking you know it all.
It’s easy to start playing dumb. To fit in wirh the bulk of the people you encounter on the road through life. But I recommened resisting that temptation with everything you’ve got. The same goes for going the loner route. History is filled with stories of loner geniuses. But I’ve never fancied that kind of life very appealing myself. I love people too much. I think i love people as much as I love knowing things. In fact i know i do. Which means I spent the first quarter of my life being ridiculed for being a brainiac or nerd, the second quarter of my life playing dumb to fit in, and luckily over the last few years I’ve managed to find that ever so slight nearly invisible line between being a someone who knows a lot and being a socially acceptable and appealing fellow human. I consider myself very lucky for this.
Of course I still get attacked now and then and accused of being a know it all, or someone who “always has to be right all the time.” But at this point I’m too aware of how utterly meaningless it is to care about such things. Knowing that you know you know is simply too valuable a commodity for oneself and the world around us to care more about fitting in than knowing a lot. In the end you and most others around you will begin to recognize how much more important you are to the world because of what you know versus how well you fit in. In fact as “Mr. Tipping Point” himself pointed out in his last book “Outliers”, if you’ve got what it takes to endure those first few decades of ridicule, there’s a good chance your knowing will contribute considerably more to the world than your fitting in ever will.
The main point to always remember is that only YOU know if you really know that you know that you know. With the right amount of courage and confidence, you can either ignore or overcome the objections of others and use this gift to make the world a better place for all of us.