Going outside the collider

In the upcoming episode of the Mid-faith Crisis podcast, Joe and I discuss the recent article wot I wrote on wisdomness.

Here’s the opening as a bit of a taster:

Writing an article about wisdom may be one of the most stupid things I’ve ever done. I mean, most days I have imposter syndrome, but this time it is overwhelming. Because I don’t feel wise at all. I make snap judgements, I talk too much, I confidently issue opinions on subjects I know little about, I say ‘yes’ to things I shouldn’t (such as writing an article called ‘How to be wise’). I try to pursue what a colleague of mine calls ‘wisdomness’ but I am, and always will be, a recovering idiot.

Still, someone needs to talk about wisdom. For one thing, we are in the grip of a stupidity epidemic of unparalleled proportions. We dismiss experts and trust ‘influencers’. Politicians, media personalities and public figures make baffling, career-ending decisions. Nonsensical conspiracy theories and hopeless quack remedies are amplified by social media, the Large Hadron Collider of stupidity, spinning millions and millions of tiny stupid particles around the world at the speed of light.

I think the Large Hadron Collider was quite a helpful metaphor, not only for the internet, but also for the way in which certain communities or situations create a kind of closed circle of stupidity. One of my seven principles of wisdom in the article is simply ‘Shut up and listen’. But maybe what I should have emphasised is listening to people outside your circle, outside your particular collider.

‘Opposition is true friendship’ wrote William Blake (who must have had a lot of friends given what contemporaries generally thought of his work). It’s important to go out and see what your world looks like from the outside. Inside our closed communities, things get distorted and the stupid particles can accelerate rapidly.

Listening to the world outside, might, for example, have stopped Apple creating their tone-deaf ‘Crush’ advert.¹ It might be a good thing. It might be a chance to learn. True wisdom comes from reflection. As I say in the article, we all have to ‘Squeeze the tube of your mistakes for the toothpaste of wisdom’.

How to be wise: Confessions of a recovering idiot