This is an excerpt from my piece, "Knowledge Is Not Understanding": moretothat.com/knowledge-is-n…
@moretothat Truth. Applies to all arenas of life and work. The tranquility / Seneca example is spot on because that’s where it hurts the most. Even perfect knowledge doesn’t prevent suffering.
@moretothat Seneca's role is an advisor and speech-writer.
@moretothat Only when you use knowledge to connect the dots and think from first principles, does it become useful
@moretothat @shreyas Most wisdom is hard won. I look at reading as a way of creating categories for future struggles I may encounter. But no book can adequately prepare you for the death of a child or a terminal diagnosis. Those storms can only be apprehended through experience.
But the downside is that if you don't read, you might not have some tools to properly process past or new experiences of these events and your reaction to them will be subpar or improve very slowly. For example, with theory of monitoring the emotions, once you start doing it you do it in every situation, it doesn't make it easy but gives you a tool to handle coming out of it or react to it.
@moretothat Love it, Lawrence. Knowledge without experience is an unrealized idea.
@moretothat "It is true that he knew all the classical passages implying the contrary; but knowing classical passages, we find, is a mode of motion, which explains why they leave so little extra force for their personal application." (Middlemarch)
@moretothat This is why all those things your parents tell you growing up don't really hit until you're much older and go through life experiences that naturally lead you to the same conclusions. Sure, you "understood" what your parents were saying, but you never really "got it".