The Expanding Map of Knowledge and Ignorance (And Why You Should Create Your Own)
Embark on a journey through the vast landscape of knowledge and ignorance, exploring its ever-expanding boundaries. Discover the importance of charting your own course in this terrain, and how it can lead to profound personal and intellectual growth.
Two Italian explorers set sail out into the open ocean
Christopher Columbus and his crew landed on an island in the Bahamas, in the Caribbean
- Columbus thought he had reached an island off the coast of East Asia
- The map he was using showed the entire world as it was known to the 15th century Europeans
- It had no empty spaces. No gaps. No room for errors and unknowns
- Another problem with this map? It left out two entirely unknown continents that sit across the Pacific Ocean between East Asia and Spain
Ignite your own personal revolution
There’s a plethora of knowledge waiting for you to be discovered
- Kindle that flame and let it burn
- Fill its empty spaces with all the knowledge of what you know and identify all that you don’t
- In doing so, we remind ourselves that our ideas are not complete
- Our ignorance is present and blissful
Learn to Embrace Your Own Ignorance
You become wiser as you embrace your own ignorance and diminish that gap
- Charlie Munger, Warren Buffet’s business partner sums it up well in his book, The Complete Investor
- “Develop into a lifelong self-learner through voracious reading; cultivate curiosity and strive to become a little wiser every day.”
- How do you do that? You create your own map of knowledge and ignorance
Draw a Map with Spaces Left to Fill in, Load it with Knowledge of What You Know, and Then Seek Out What You Don’t
The Expanding Map of Knowledge and Ignorance
- Helps you identify your knowledge gaps in the areas that actually matter to you
- Highlights your strengths
- It helps you understand yourself better by identifying the fields you wish to master and the ones you want to further improve upon or explore next
- Gives you a holistic view of where you stand today so you can phase out the steps for what’s ahead