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I feel like the key thing about a "growth oriented mindset" or some near-equivalent buzzword is that the normal state of affairs to not know things. This is the foundation (in Socrates) of our civilization.

What I've been trying to articulate here and there in the past few weeks that the object of intellectual development should be acquiring structured ways of not knowing. Rigorous mathematics is such a way: in basic analysis class you get red marks for thinking you know things you can't prove. The buddhism of the Heart Sutra is another: the Heart Sutra boils down to "we want to know big truths about emtpiness and suffering to transcend it and achieve Nirvana, but because of emptiness there's no way to know and nothing to know; therefore, recite these magic words because that's what wise men do". (It sounds like a scam, but it's really deep in how the argument is actually made in length).

This of course runs counter to beliefs in "ultratechnology" such that we'll soon soon craft our own transcendence. But eh, we shall fight in the shade.



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