“How do you know all these things that you say? How do you know what you say is true?”
“I don’t know they’re true,” he said. “I believe them because it’s fun to believe them.”
Richard Bach, Illusions.
As we explore the world around us we try to explain to ourselves why things are the way they are. We learn something, then we learn something else. Like you, I was going from an idea to an idea hoping that I will find The One Big Idea that will solve all of my problems and make me a better person.
Then I heard a joke.
An old wise man was playing a guitar, pressing a single chord and plucking the strings. When asked why he’s not bringing more diversity to his game, like the younger players, whose fingers are running all over their guitars, the old man said “They are young and they are looking. And I already found”.
I thought – how likely am I to find a theory that is going to always help me? Given that I change all the time, and my life changes all the time? Isn’t it more logical to assume that I will always be looking? We never stop learning about the life around us. We as a mankind discover new technologies every day. Why should exploring the way our minds work be any different?
You will ask – but what about the truth? If our minds work in a certain way, then there is only one way to describe it. How do you know that the things you write about are true?
The thing is – I don’t know if they are true. But I know that they help.
Everything I write about is there to make my life and the life of my readers better.
If something comes along tomorrow that works better than what I have written, I will gladly accept it.
And if something I wrote about will be proved incorrect, so be it. As long as it helps in the meantime!