You’re smart. You went to college. You’ve read lots of books. You’ve seen a thing or two.
So you know a lot. When people have questions, you’ve got answers. When stuff happens, you’ve got opinions. When there are problems, you’ve got solutions.
This is great, right? Maybe.
Epictetus reminds us that “it’s impossible to learn that which you think you already know.” To the Stoics, particularly Zeno, conceitedness was the primary impediment to wisdom. Because when you’ve always got answers, opinions and ready-made solutions, what you’re not doing is learning. What you’re not doing is looking at things objectively, clearly, with fresh eyes. You’re just relying on instinct and preconceived notions.
Ego is the enemyfor a reason. It blinds us. It distracts us. It puffs us up and prevents us from learning. The less of a know it all we are, the more we can actually get out and discover. The more open we’ll be. The wiser we’ll become.
Remember, the key to Socrates’ philosophy was his admission of ignorance. It was his desire to ask questions, his willingness to be proven wrong, his interest in having conversations—with anyone about anything. He was smart because he was humble, not conceited because he was smart.
This is a skill we have to practice. We have to prevent ego from cutting us off from wisdom.
Nothing wrong with changing one's mind, one's opinions, if more information comes along that causes another look at one's thinking.
I'm thinking of Copernicus, Galileo (piggybacked onto Copernicus's theory) (= the Earth revolved round the sun, not the sun round Earth): Martin Luther (how the church had got "grace" all wrong); Einstein (theory of relativity; couldn't reconcile old paradigms); and there are many others. St Paul, if you like. Our world, our lives as we now know them, would be radically different if these men had not been able to change their minds.
Do you know "plate tectonics" as an idea has only been accepted since mid- to late 1960s? But who would argue with that now? (And yet, that theory may still be wrong, but we won't know till more evidence comes to light). What about medical advances? Who these days would want to tie a dead mouse to their cheek to alleviate toothache? And who would want a surgeon who did not wash hands before operations?
Okay, we're not all geniuses, and we may never come up with amazing new ideas like any of these.
But being willing to accept we were wrong - could change our families, our communities.
Nothing wrong with changing one's mind, one's opinions, if more information comes along that causes another look at one's thinking.
I'm thinking of Copernicus, Galileo (piggybacked onto Copernicus's theory) (= the Earth revolved round the sun, not the sun round Earth): Martin Luther (how the church had got "grace" all wrong); Einstein (theory of relativity; couldn't reconcile old paradigms); and there are many others. St Paul, if you like. Our world, our lives as we now know them, would be radically different if these men had not been able to change their minds.
Do you know "plate tectonics" as an idea has only been accepted since mid- to late 1960s? But who would argue with that now? (And yet, that theory may still be wrong [IMO, more likely than wrong, possibly incomplete, but you're very correct], but we won't know till more evidence comes to light). What about medical advances? Who these days would want to tie a dead mouse to their cheek to alleviate toothache? And who would want a surgeon who did not wash hands before operations?
Okay, we're not all geniuses, and we may never come up with amazing new ideas like any of these.
But being willing to accept we were wrong - could change our families, our communities.
One of the books I'm reading now is The Tangled Tree: A Radical New History of Life. One of the new (new to me anyway) ideas in the book is that not only does our DNA change generation to generation because we get genes from each of our parents, but our DNA changes as a result of environmental influences, one of which could be viral infections. The author tells a compelling story. One of the figures he describes is French evolutionist Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, a "a soldier from a family of soldiering minor nobility who transformed himself into a botanist, then into a professor of zoology at the Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle in Paris..." David Quammen described Lamarck as a protean figure. [protean: extremely variable ; changeable in shape or form, as an amoeba ; a versatile actor]
That's what Darwin's theory of evolution was about: how environment can change species. He worked that out by watching tortoises in the Galapagos Islands: tortoises that ate plants near the ground had rounded shells and shorter necks. Tortoises on islands with tall shrubs had longer necks and shells that bent upward, allowing them to stretch their necks. Survival of the most adaptable!! In human beings: skin colour, flare of nostrils. Even alcohol tolerance: some Asians lack the enzyme that metabolises alcohol and thus have a lower alcohol tolerance than Europeans.
I am not, however, convinced that one's genes prevent one from changing one's mind. Is stubbornness learned, or inherited? Is adaptability and receptivity to new ideas learned, or inherited?
I love Harris noting all evolution involves death….those that are not strong are destined to die. Thrown aside with no second thought. The conquerors do not look back and feel sorry for those they have crushed.
That is how we must look at change in our personal lives; our past beliefs must die if we are to realize change. As in real life, death of an old idea is very hard to overcome. Past beliefs do not want to go away without a fight. They will hang on in the back of our minds until we make the decision to crush them. Then our transformation is complete, and we can move ahead and challenge our next evolution.
Change is difficult, but important to our growth.
Anyone know how to delete the blank jpeg image that is above?
I guess you’ve tried editing it out- does it not show a blank space when you go into edit mode?
if it takes forever when you’re trying to save an edit - you might want to clear all cookies and history from your browser - - Grease Spot website is real picky about that - it hangs me up a lot if I’ve done a lot of browsing
Thank you for the assistance. On my screen it shows the Noir image and below that a blank image the same size as Noir. It appears on other’s screens only the printed one is visible.
Here's a few "words of wisdom" for followers of TWI or any other fundamentalist group pushing manifestations or gifts of Holy Spirit. I can say with a HIGH DEGREE of confidence that neither TWI nor The Way Corps did at any time foster in me any wisdom as reflected in this article. However, as a result of living life (and enduring some of the tribulations/troubles/pressures thereof) over the course of the roughly 35 years since I severed my relationship with Wierwille's cult, I have grown to have some wisdom. I have learned to accept that I've been wrong plenty of times. Have you?
I saw this on FB and did a bit of checking on the internet, not wanting to believe something just because it's on FB. Apparently, researchers at UC San Diego distilled a previously 28-question test (survey) down to 7 questions and have shown that those questions can with a reasonable degree of certainty show the level of wisdom a person has gotten to in their life.
“Wisdom is a personality traitcomplex and multi-component“says the group of researchers led by Dilip V. Jeste and Michael Thomas, from the Department of Psychiatry at the USCD and the Department of Psychology at the University of Colorado, respectively.
The team created the San Diego Wisdom Scale, which originally consisted of 24 items, evaluating six components.
-The component ofself-reflection, which measures the desire and ability of people to understand themselves and their actions at a deep level. Assess preferences regarding understanding of one’s thoughts, motivations, and behaviors.
-The component ofprosocial behaviorsincludes empathy, compassion, altruism, and a sense of justice. It assesses the ability to maintain positive social connections, as well as compassion or mindful behavior.
-The component ofemotional regulationmeasures the ability to regulate negative emotions that interfere with decision-making. It evaluates the own feeling of being able to effectively manage negative emotions and emotional stress and favor positive feelings.
-The component ofacceptance of divergent perspectivesexamines acceptance of other value systems and interest in knowing the points of view of others. It measures one’s openness and comfort with values and perspectives that may be different from one’s own.
-The component ofdecisionassesses the ability to make decisions in a timely manner.
-The component ofsocial counselingrefers to the ability to give good advice to others.
Subsequently, as a result of the appearance of a growing number of publications that suggested that spirituality is also a component of wisdom, the researchers decided to add it.
-The component ofspiritualitymeasures the connection with oneself, with nature or with the transcendent (such as the soul or God).
The total score on this expanded 28-item scale was called the Jeste-Thomas Wisdom Index (SD-WISE-28) or JTWI.
But now, in a study published in the journal International Psychogeriatrics, researchers found that an abbreviated seven-item version (SD-WISE-7) wascomparable and reliable.
“Measures of wisdom are increasingly being used to study factors that affect mental health and optimal aging. We wanted to test whethera list of only seven itemsit could provide valuable information to examine wisdom, “said Jeste, lead author of the paper, senior associate dean of the Center for Healthy Aging and distinguished professor of psychiatry and neurosciences at UCSD School of Medicine. [...]
These are the seven statements that are part of the current abbreviated index:
1. I stay calm under pressure.
2. I avoid self-reflection. (It is scored backwards)
3. I like to be exposed to different points of view.
4. I tend to put off making important decisions as long as I can. (It is scored backwards)
5. I often don’t know what to say to people when they ask me for advice. (It is scored backwards)
6. My spiritual belief gives me inner strength.
7. I avoid situations where I know my help will be needed. (It is scored backwards)
“Shorter does not mean less valid”says Jeste. “We selected the right types of questions to obtain important information that not only contributes to the advancement of science, but also supports our previous data that wisdom is correlated with health and longevity.”
Furthermore, they found that SD-WISE-7 strongly and positively correlated withresilience, happiness and mental well-beingand, conversely, strongly and negatively with loneliness, depression and anxiety.
“There are evidence-based interventions toincrease the levels of specific components of wisdom, which would help reduce loneliness and promote general well-being, “the researcher stressed.
He added: “Just as the COVID-19 vaccine protects us from the new coronavirus, wisdom can help usprotect us from loneliness. Thus, we can potentially help end a behavioral pandemic of loneliness, suicide and opioid abuse that has been occurring for the past 20 years. “
The next steps the team plans to take include genetic, biological, psychosocial, and cultural studies of a large number of diverse populations to assess wisdom, as well as various factors related to the mental, physical, and cognitive health of people throughout life. life, Jeste advanced.
“We need wisdom tosurvive and thrivein the life. Now, we have a list of questions that take less than a couple of minutes to answer and that can be put into clinical practice to try to help people, “he concluded.
Among the limitations of the study, the authors mentioned that the measures used were based on self-report and, therefore, the associations could be affected by response biases. And they noted that while they would be helpful, there are currently no validated objective measures of wisdom or other personality traits.
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Rocky
What If You Weren’t Such a Know It All?
You’re smart. You went to college. You’ve read lots of books. You’ve seen a thing or two.
So you know a lot. When people have questions, you’ve got answers. When stuff happens, you’ve got opinions. When there are problems, you’ve got solutions.
This is great, right? Maybe.
Epictetus reminds us that “it’s impossible to learn that which you think you already know.” To the Stoics, particularly Zeno, conceitedness was the primary impediment to wisdom. Because when you’ve always got answers, opinions and ready-made solutions, what you’re not doing is learning. What you’re not doing is looking at things objectively, clearly, with fresh eyes. You’re just relying on instinct and preconceived notions.
Ego is the enemy for a reason. It blinds us. It distracts us. It puffs us up and prevents us from learning. The less of a know it all we are, the more we can actually get out and discover. The more open we’ll be. The wiser we’ll become.
Remember, the key to Socrates’ philosophy was his admission of ignorance. It was his desire to ask questions, his willingness to be proven wrong, his interest in having conversations—with anyone about anything. He was smart because he was humble, not conceited because he was smart.
This is a skill we have to practice. We have to prevent ego from cutting us off from wisdom.
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Twinky
Good TedX talk.
Nothing wrong with changing one's mind, one's opinions, if more information comes along that causes another look at one's thinking.
I'm thinking of Copernicus, Galileo (piggybacked onto Copernicus's theory) (= the Earth revolved round the sun, not the sun round Earth): Martin Luther (how the church had got "grace" all wrong); Einstein (theory of relativity; couldn't reconcile old paradigms); and there are many others. St Paul, if you like. Our world, our lives as we now know them, would be radically different if these men had not been able to change their minds.
Do you know "plate tectonics" as an idea has only been accepted since mid- to late 1960s? But who would argue with that now? (And yet, that theory may still be wrong, but we won't know till more evidence comes to light). What about medical advances? Who these days would want to tie a dead mouse to their cheek to alleviate toothache? And who would want a surgeon who did not wash hands before operations?
Okay, we're not all geniuses, and we may never come up with amazing new ideas like any of these.
But being willing to accept we were wrong - could change our families, our communities.
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Share on other sites
Rocky
One of the books I'm reading now is The Tangled Tree: A Radical New History of Life. One of the new (new to me anyway) ideas in the book is that not only does our DNA change generation to generation because we get genes from each of our parents, but our DNA changes as a result of environmental influences, one of which could be viral infections. The author tells a compelling story. One of the figures he describes is French evolutionist Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, a "a soldier from a family of soldiering minor nobility who transformed himself into a botanist, then into a professor of zoology at the Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle in Paris..." David Quammen described Lamarck as a protean figure. [protean: extremely variable ; changeable in shape or form, as an amoeba ; a versatile actor]
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Twinky
I think we'd say that Lamarck was "reinventing himself" in today's parlance, Rocky. But I don't think that means his DNA would change markedly.
I found this quite interesting academic paper about genetics and familial recombination of genetic material:
Understanding genetic changes between generations | PNAS
That's what Darwin's theory of evolution was about: how environment can change species. He worked that out by watching tortoises in the Galapagos Islands: tortoises that ate plants near the ground had rounded shells and shorter necks. Tortoises on islands with tall shrubs had longer necks and shells that bent upward, allowing them to stretch their necks. Survival of the most adaptable!! In human beings: skin colour, flare of nostrils. Even alcohol tolerance: some Asians lack the enzyme that metabolises alcohol and thus have a lower alcohol tolerance than Europeans.
I am not, however, convinced that one's genes prevent one from changing one's mind. Is stubbornness learned, or inherited? Is adaptability and receptivity to new ideas learned, or inherited?
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Stayed Too Long
I love Harris noting all evolution involves death….those that are not strong are destined to die. Thrown aside with no second thought. The conquerors do not look back and feel sorry for those they have crushed.
Edited by Stayed Too LongThat is how we must look at change in our personal lives; our past beliefs must die if we are to realize change. As in real life, death of an old idea is very hard to overcome. Past beliefs do not want to go away without a fight. They will hang on in the back of our minds until we make the decision to crush them. Then our transformation is complete, and we can move ahead and challenge our next evolution.
Change is difficult, but important to our growth.
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Bolshevik
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Stayed Too Long
Edited by ModgellanI deleted the blank .jpg
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Stayed Too Long
Anyone know how to delete the blank jpeg image that is above?
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Rocky
It's not blank on my screen.
If you don't feel like yourself... -Seyda Noir
I love the prose.
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T-Bone
I guess you’ve tried editing it out- does it not show a blank space when you go into edit mode?
if it takes forever when you’re trying to save an edit - you might want to clear all cookies and history from your browser - - Grease Spot website is real picky about that - it hangs me up a lot if I’ve done a lot of browsing
Edited by T-BoneMore info
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Stayed Too Long
Thank you for the assistance. On my screen it shows the Noir image and below that a blank image the same size as Noir. It appears on other’s screens only the printed one is visible.
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Share on other sites
Rocky
Here's a few "words of wisdom" for followers of TWI or any other fundamentalist group pushing manifestations or gifts of Holy Spirit. I can say with a HIGH DEGREE of confidence that neither TWI nor The Way Corps did at any time foster in me any wisdom as reflected in this article. However, as a result of living life (and enduring some of the tribulations/troubles/pressures thereof) over the course of the roughly 35 years since I severed my relationship with Wierwille's cult, I have grown to have some wisdom. I have learned to accept that I've been wrong plenty of times. Have you?
The 7 questions that measure your level of wisdom
I saw this on FB and did a bit of checking on the internet, not wanting to believe something just because it's on FB. Apparently, researchers at UC San Diego distilled a previously 28-question test (survey) down to 7 questions and have shown that those questions can with a reasonable degree of certainty show the level of wisdom a person has gotten to in their life.
“Wisdom is a personality trait complex and multi-component“says the group of researchers led by Dilip V. Jeste and Michael Thomas, from the Department of Psychiatry at the USCD and the Department of Psychology at the University of Colorado, respectively.
The team created the San Diego Wisdom Scale, which originally consisted of 24 items, evaluating six components.
-The component of self-reflection, which measures the desire and ability of people to understand themselves and their actions at a deep level. Assess preferences regarding understanding of one’s thoughts, motivations, and behaviors.
-The component of prosocial behaviors includes empathy, compassion, altruism, and a sense of justice. It assesses the ability to maintain positive social connections, as well as compassion or mindful behavior.
-The component of emotional regulation measures the ability to regulate negative emotions that interfere with decision-making. It evaluates the own feeling of being able to effectively manage negative emotions and emotional stress and favor positive feelings.
-The component of acceptance of divergent perspectives examines acceptance of other value systems and interest in knowing the points of view of others. It measures one’s openness and comfort with values and perspectives that may be different from one’s own.
-The component of decision assesses the ability to make decisions in a timely manner.
-The component of social counseling refers to the ability to give good advice to others.
Subsequently, as a result of the appearance of a growing number of publications that suggested that spirituality is also a component of wisdom, the researchers decided to add it.
-The component of spirituality measures the connection with oneself, with nature or with the transcendent (such as the soul or God).
The total score on this expanded 28-item scale was called the Jeste-Thomas Wisdom Index (SD-WISE-28) or JTWI.
But now, in a study published in the journal International Psychogeriatrics, researchers found that an abbreviated seven-item version (SD-WISE-7) was comparable and reliable.
“Measures of wisdom are increasingly being used to study factors that affect mental health and optimal aging. We wanted to test whether a list of only seven items it could provide valuable information to examine wisdom, “said Jeste, lead author of the paper, senior associate dean of the Center for Healthy Aging and distinguished professor of psychiatry and neurosciences at UCSD School of Medicine. [...]
These are the seven statements that are part of the current abbreviated index:
1. I stay calm under pressure.
2. I avoid self-reflection. (It is scored backwards)
3. I like to be exposed to different points of view.
4. I tend to put off making important decisions as long as I can. (It is scored backwards)
5. I often don’t know what to say to people when they ask me for advice. (It is scored backwards)
6. My spiritual belief gives me inner strength.
7. I avoid situations where I know my help will be needed. (It is scored backwards)
“Shorter does not mean less valid”says Jeste. “We selected the right types of questions to obtain important information that not only contributes to the advancement of science, but also supports our previous data that wisdom is correlated with health and longevity.”
Furthermore, they found that SD-WISE-7 strongly and positively correlated with resilience, happiness and mental well-being and, conversely, strongly and negatively with loneliness, depression and anxiety.
“There are evidence-based interventions to increase the levels of specific components of wisdom, which would help reduce loneliness and promote general well-being, “the researcher stressed.
He added: “Just as the COVID-19 vaccine protects us from the new coronavirus, wisdom can help us protect us from loneliness. Thus, we can potentially help end a behavioral pandemic of loneliness, suicide and opioid abuse that has been occurring for the past 20 years. “
The next steps the team plans to take include genetic, biological, psychosocial, and cultural studies of a large number of diverse populations to assess wisdom, as well as various factors related to the mental, physical, and cognitive health of people throughout life. life, Jeste advanced.
“We need wisdom to survive and thrive in the life. Now, we have a list of questions that take less than a couple of minutes to answer and that can be put into clinical practice to try to help people, “he concluded.
Among the limitations of the study, the authors mentioned that the measures used were based on self-report and, therefore, the associations could be affected by response biases. And they noted that while they would be helpful, there are currently no validated objective measures of wisdom or other personality traits.
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