Does anyone remember the time where we didn’t know something and you had to be OK with it? 

Seems like ages ago, or maybe I’m feeling my age. But thanks to the advent and growth of technology, it’s easier than ever to obtain facts. The issue I have with this, is that we may be sacrificing wisdom for convenience. 

The more we know, ironically, drives anxiety. It lessens curiosity. It quashes our desire to learn. Quite frankly, it makes life boring. If we have all the facts available to us, what’s the point in asking questions? 

It’s one thing to know a fact. But you can get facts anywhere. What’s more important, I would argue, is how to think. Reasoning, logic, deduction, interpretation – these are the skill sets that will help us move past just repetition and boredom. 

It’s a focus that will translate well to the workplace. What I come across often in the coaching world is that most people have insecurity and anxiety, and many of them try to cover it by giving advice or spouting facts. But the fact of the matter is, those who embrace their insecurity, ask really good questions and learn to focus on their ability to continue to learn are the best leaders in an organization. 

Solutions will vary – but I’d say a good start is to begin by asking yourself questions, and going deeper beyond just the basic answer. Figuring out a belief system, why you believe things and understanding why others can believe the opposite, is a fun and productive philosophical exercise that will translate over into other areas of your life. 

It’s too strong to say facts are worthless, but without context and understanding, they don’t have multiple legs to stand on. It’s our understanding and interpretation that give facts meaning, and we only understand and interpret through questions. 

Happy week!

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I’m, I’m at the tail end of Gen X, but I identify with Gen X. I like my Gen X people. Gen X will remember this. Do you remember a time back where you just didn’t know the answer to something and you had to be okay with it? It was almost this freeing kind of . It was, it was so nice to just not know. And we’re, we’re living now in a place where we’re inundated with information.

We’re inundated with facts. Everybody’s got a fact. Everybody wants to tell you what they know, and they can find the study or statistic that shows it. But without context, the facts are irrelevant. And I’d argue that we’re, we’re sacrificing wisdom and intelligence for the, the idea of just knowing facts that anybody can find when they Google something. And I would argue that the need for reasoning, logic, understanding context, being able to think is far more important as we move forward in the society than it is to just no facts.

Cause anybody can get facts anywhere. And that’s what I’m gonna talk about today. I’m gonna talk about how knowing everything like we do today, having information on our fingertips is actually driving more anxiety. Anxiety, um, it lessens our curiosity, it impacts our ability to be leaders. I’ll talk about workplace impact and then maybe at the end of this, if I remember, and if I have time, um, and I’m so inclined, I’ll give you some, some tidbits maybe that can help us get thinking about, um, how to think, thinking about how to think rather than, uh, just knowing facts.

So, um, like I said, I think my gen gen Xers will appreciate this and older, there was that time where, you know, you’d think of something and, and you would just never know it. And the only, you had to take a trip to the library, go through the Dewey decimal system to find some kind of book or an atlas or an encyclopedia to find it out. You actually had to do research.

And most of the time you’re like, I just don’t care enough to do that. And so it just went away. And that was nice. It was nice. You could focus on more things, more pertinent things, more impressive things, more relationship things. And you just, you didn’t know when your friends were gonna show up. You didn’t know when, uh, you know, your parents were gonna pick you up from the movie theater or anything else.

You could talk about it in general, uh, in in general context. But we, you know, there was a mystery to it. And there, there was a lot of fun to that. Um, now granted, having information on our fingertips has its benefits. I will say that. But, um, I, I would say we, we have this fake knowledge now of knowing facts. And you could find any fact online. Any fact that you wanna find, you could find it.

And there’s true facts, and there’s fake facts, and there’s half true facts. And there are, there are facts that are only facts when included with the proper context and . So, so facts. The idea of a fact is, is almost subjective at this point. And so knowing facts, and, and you see this a lot in the coaching industry, um, people who try to present themselves as experts, everybody wants to be an expert.

Okay? We get this. Everybody wants to be an expert. Everybody wants to be wanted, everybody wants to be intelligent and seen as such. And that’s great. So they spit out knowledge to almost present themselves in this way that they are intelligent. But without context and understanding the context or making it real for people to know how to implement these facts, it’s almost irrelevant. The facts are pointless because it doesn’t change behavior or doesn’t drive home the message you’re trying to drive home.

It just, you know, it’s this false supporting of some BS statement so that we can present ourselves as experts in some particular type of way. And especially on, you know, you see this on TikTok all the time. I love the psychologists who come out and the psychiatrists and the neuroscientists who say, that’s not what that means, right? To, to correct all these people. Or just say, the hippocampus does this and you, that means you’re gonna do this.

And, um, it’s such a misinterpretation of, of knowledge, um, to the point where it’s damaging and it, it makes people change behavior in a very negative way. And, and you look ridiculous. I want you to know, you look ridiculous. . Um, there is, ironically, I think the more knowledge we have, the more anxiety we have. Um, ignorance is bliss. I do believe that to a certain extent, there is, uh, a certain bliss of ignorance.

It’s why when people turn off social media, it’s a cathartic experience. It’s why when people turn off the news, it’s cathartic. Not knowing what’s going on and not being a hermit. I’m not talking about being a hermit, but there’s, there’s a scale of knowledge and information. We’re being inundated with constant ads and information and facts on, on why you need this medication that you didn’t even know you needed. And, uh, let me come in with this article and why you’re doing things wrong.

You’re shoveling your driveway wrong, and you’re like, what the hell are you talking about? This is ridiculous. So, so the more facts were given, uh, I would say it is impacting us in a very negative way. Um, even right on down to the weather. Do we need to know that the storm’s coming in a week...