If you believe you can, you might. If you believe you can’t, you definitely won’t.
What we know or don’t know matters less than what we think we know that just isn’t true.
What we know is based on what you can objectively perceive as real. It’s demonstrable, repeatable, and relatively unbiased.
Knowledge can be debated, discussed, and accepted or rejected based on something that either is or is not so.
On the other hand, belief is not based on objective perception. Belief is a luxurious benefit of agency and free will that shapes our perception of reality, influencing our experience.
People do not change their beliefs based on facts or information. Beliefs evolve according to the suffering we endure. Beliefs only change when the suffering becomes unbearable.
What we know or don’t know can be taught and learned or unlearned because it’s based on what can be demonstrated and objectively perceived.
But beliefs are never taught. We hold them preciously exempt from consideration.
Ask. Don’t guess.
Guessing creates noise that makes it harder to hear the signal.
We guess because we’re afraid to be wrong and we’re also afraid to be imperfect. Guessing is what our ego does to pretend we know something we don’t actually know.
Guessing is “making something up” and pretending it’s true. It’s a form of lying or acting. Guessing is fantasy.
Science, on the other hand is a process os iterative observation, deduction, proposition, evaluation, and revision. Form a hypothesis, test it, and revise it based on the results. This is not guessing. This is learning.
See:
Insight and potential exists on the margin.
It’s convenient to believe that something is either true or false. More specifically, that “all true” or “all false.” But this purity of polarity only exists in the abstract. In reality, most things are closer to the middle. Some things are 80/20, some 60/40, some 51/49.
“Good enough” is the opposite of great.
If something is “good enough,” it’s not great. It’s just good enough. It’s not bad, but it’s not great either. Someone who believes something to be “good enough” will never strive for greatness.
Great things are created by unsatisfied people. People who create great things seek to be accepted but do not believe they belong.
They don’t seek approval because they don’t value it. They believe they are different, often because they needed to be exceptional to be accepted by the people closest to them.
They often become outcasts because they teach people that they don’t belong. They don’t fit in. They don’t conform. And this is intentional. They don’t want to fit in. They want to stand out.
People who achieve great things are