JK Walz
05-26-2003, 04:37 PM
Hello all-
Do you ever get the feeling that life is an inescapable cycle of re-inventing the wheel?
Recently, I have been thinking about the idea that a mistake is a mistake only if you do not learn from it. If you learn from it, then it was a lesson. I think this is a great way of thinking! At a base level it helps salve a bruised ego if you do in fact screw up. You can tell yourself- "Sure I screwed up, but since I plan on learning from it, it is a 'lesson' and not a 'mistake'". This sort of rationalization gets you no where if you don't indeed grow from it. How do you grow from it if you cannot take an honest and sincere look at yourself? Self-honesty is difficult! Not only that, but this sort of blindness (the inability to truly admit error to yourself) is a self-perpetuating system or cycle! Once you start down this road of blindness you can't see where the exit is in order to even begin to think about taking it.
Lets take it to an inter-personal level. I heard someone make a comment the other day something like- "I try to tell my son what to do but he won't listen!". I think this a very common complaint among parents! I know that people need to figure things out for themselves or else we would have no individual expression. If we imitate or follow without question we never learn. At the same time- what is it that keeps us from taking the advice? Maybe the advice isn't altruistic and we know that? Maybe our ego can't take the threat of looking "fau kiu" or unknowledgeable?
So far I have only talked about this on a personal level and inter-personal level (and very very briefly at that). Now lets take it to a species wide perspective. You have the expression- "Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it". I think this goes along the same lines. Why do we forget the past history?
Why can't we remember the past, apply the lesson learned to the present situation, and help promote a better future in personal life, our interpersonal life, and globally?
I see all of this as "re-inventing the wheel". We keep making the same mistakes over and over. Do we ever really learn? What happens when we do learn something?
I guess the question is- how do we stop re-inventing the wheel? How do I stop re-inventing the wheel for myself in my own lifetime? How do we behave so that when we make a mistake it really is a lesson, and we do not repeat it? In my opinion, in order to really succeed at this we need to start with our own ego. Once we can do this we will be able to truly look at ourselves. We will be able to listen to those who have already learned the same lessons. We will be able to read and/or remember about the grand lessons learned by the world. Eventually the entire species gets to the point where [b]all[\b] of the really hard lessons have been learned- we do not repeat them- we stop re-inventing the wheel.
Once we stop re-inventing the wheel (on any of the three levels mentioned above) we can get down to creating something new or original!
Just my thoughts-
JK
Do you ever get the feeling that life is an inescapable cycle of re-inventing the wheel?
Recently, I have been thinking about the idea that a mistake is a mistake only if you do not learn from it. If you learn from it, then it was a lesson. I think this is a great way of thinking! At a base level it helps salve a bruised ego if you do in fact screw up. You can tell yourself- "Sure I screwed up, but since I plan on learning from it, it is a 'lesson' and not a 'mistake'". This sort of rationalization gets you no where if you don't indeed grow from it. How do you grow from it if you cannot take an honest and sincere look at yourself? Self-honesty is difficult! Not only that, but this sort of blindness (the inability to truly admit error to yourself) is a self-perpetuating system or cycle! Once you start down this road of blindness you can't see where the exit is in order to even begin to think about taking it.
Lets take it to an inter-personal level. I heard someone make a comment the other day something like- "I try to tell my son what to do but he won't listen!". I think this a very common complaint among parents! I know that people need to figure things out for themselves or else we would have no individual expression. If we imitate or follow without question we never learn. At the same time- what is it that keeps us from taking the advice? Maybe the advice isn't altruistic and we know that? Maybe our ego can't take the threat of looking "fau kiu" or unknowledgeable?
So far I have only talked about this on a personal level and inter-personal level (and very very briefly at that). Now lets take it to a species wide perspective. You have the expression- "Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it". I think this goes along the same lines. Why do we forget the past history?
Why can't we remember the past, apply the lesson learned to the present situation, and help promote a better future in personal life, our interpersonal life, and globally?
I see all of this as "re-inventing the wheel". We keep making the same mistakes over and over. Do we ever really learn? What happens when we do learn something?
I guess the question is- how do we stop re-inventing the wheel? How do I stop re-inventing the wheel for myself in my own lifetime? How do we behave so that when we make a mistake it really is a lesson, and we do not repeat it? In my opinion, in order to really succeed at this we need to start with our own ego. Once we can do this we will be able to truly look at ourselves. We will be able to listen to those who have already learned the same lessons. We will be able to read and/or remember about the grand lessons learned by the world. Eventually the entire species gets to the point where [b]all[\b] of the really hard lessons have been learned- we do not repeat them- we stop re-inventing the wheel.
Once we stop re-inventing the wheel (on any of the three levels mentioned above) we can get down to creating something new or original!
Just my thoughts-
JK