The End & the Means

Knowledge and wisdom come not from the ability to commit to memory experiences in life, but rather from the ability to comprehend the significance of them. This is why trivia is useless; it occupies the memory without stimulating the mind. Computers will always be better at tasks in memorization. It is therefore important not to seek facts, but evidence. Not to seek truths, but observations. It is only as we pine for the hunt that we find our prey. The conclusions we draw from our walk in life aren't as important as the walk itself. It is the walk that gives the end significance, not the other way around. If we could attain clarity without reaching clarity, we would not be enlightened, in quite the same way that in winning the lottery a person doesn't suddenly understand how to make equivalent sums of money.

This is not to say that our goals are not important, but finding the path that takes us to them is what gives the goals their existential weight. Our mind has a strange habit of denying or sabotaging opportunities which, unconsciously, we don't even believe we deserve. This is why wealth is so illusory. Once we can attain the things we desire without "earning" them, we lose the ability to feel the sense of reward our mind grants us upon reaching a goal.

As a counter argument, many would sardonically suggest poverty to those who scorn wealth. Poverty, or more pertinently extreme debt, is quite the opposite of wealth. Yes, of course economically, but more importantly in the sense of reward just mentioned. While wealth grants immediate and meaningless access, poverty gives a sense of continuous denial: we can't enjoy the things we attain, because they are paltry supplements to the whole of what we need. To a man in severe debt, very few things short of complete relief of debt will provide lasting satisfaction.