Learning curves are inherent to learning anything worth learning. It’s not that everything valuable must come at a cost, whether money or effort. Some gains are incredibly cheap to attain. Yet, in the complex reality of humanity, most pursuits involve hardship: because not many people can put up with the difficulty, the few that can tend to be rewarded for it.

Learning is also pleasurable. Although many in a society obsessed with profit and wealth will fail to comprehend this concept, most learning brings no economic advantages. However, there is so much more to the world, even this world of ours, than money. Indeed, learning is intrinsically good. Learning brings pleasure. Yet, the learning curve exists. A point of friction. A degree of pain. Easy to get started, hard to achieve proficiency.

Because the wealthiest have inoculated us with a need for convenience and an aversion to effort (so they can retain their status), we have arduous relationships with learning curves. We must embrace every curve. They often lead to the most wondrous views.

Wondrous learning curves

It is logical to think the most interesting adventures lie ahead, rather than behind. We have the benefit of experience and the perspective to apply wisdom to the nuance of reality. Yet, it is common to believe the good old days are good because they’re old, that the fascination must belong in the past, in the wilderness of youth.

Youth is thrilling because of the lack of perspective, wisdom and baggage. It is interesting as far as chaos is interesting. It is bold in its ignorance, energetic and carefree in its outlook.

Yet, there is no reason not to be bold as we mature. If we manage, we can only conclude that the best stories are yet to be told.

The best stories are ahead of us

Rules that constrain the few from achieving unsustainable growth and power often come under scrutiny. Of course, the reason lies with the power and influence of the few affected. They will make those rules look constraining for the majority, claiming that we should care about them, get rid of them, that it would be in our best interest.

It’s not. And we should be wary of such people.

Constraining rules

What separates a semi-intelligent person from mastery of a topic is familiarity. Geniuses will pick up a subject insultingly fast, but most of us will need time to adjust and learn.

The good news is familiarity is a choice: we decide how much time we allocate to learning a new skill or becoming proficient in a new field. The bad news is that, once we accept that familiarity is a choice and a matter of time, there’s nowhere to hide.

Familiarity is a choice

The atomisation of society is not all bad: finding niches in which we can enjoy our passions with like-minded people is a privilege of the current age. However, it has led to a dissonance: we have become less able to interact as members of larger groups, in which a disparity of opinions is not only inevitable but ever more common, as everyone becomes more entrenched in their atomised passion groups.

It’s natural to struggle with this conflict. Most of us grew up in a society with a solid mainstream, in which the best and most popular were often accepted as the same, and everyone knew what everyone was talking about. Now, it’s not unusual for many not to know the most famous people, and most people are completely unaware of some of the most celebrated figures in specific fields.

As usual, such difficulty should point the way in which we should work. Significant issues are seldom easy.

Seldom easy

Many experts concur that mis- and disinformation are the most imminent threats to peace and harmony. One doesn’t need to be an expert in history or geopolitics to see that the current trends can only lead to global conflict and mass deaths. At the heart of it is the insatiable greed of the very few, those who fuel polarisation to continue to grow ever wealthier as most of us grow ever poorer.

If mis- and disinformation are the main ways in which the global order may collapse, it’s about time we punish them as hard as we punish the worst crimes. Of course, that would mean going after those very few at the very top.

Martian Thoughts

Wondrous learning curves

The best stories are ahead of us

Constraining rules

Familiarity is a choice

Seldom easy

Punishing disinformation