"Still trying to learn how to think better"
This is, to this day,
the motto of one of the
most celebrated names in
one of the most celebrated fields.
The human being celebrated, I to this day, feel in awe of.
Not for what he has done.
But for merely existing.
Though the disgust brought about by the asininity of his statement
does put a smear on that feeling.
I will now take apart his statement above.
"Still trying"
If a human being is trying today
he will try for the rest of the days in his life.
However many or however little left.
Trying, perhaps, is the most dangerous addiction.
Because trying is bittersweet.
Bittersweet is fun. Like gambling.
"Keep at it you will get it one day"
they said.
But the day never comes, does it?
The truth of the question above may or may not hit you,
but there is a voice within you that still does not
want to give up trying.
It is the reason you keep trying.
Why does the voice not shut up?
Because you keep listening to it.
And no,
"not listening to the voice"
will not completely quiet the voice.
"to learn"
I will tire myself to death with writing about this illusion.
But it will still stick around until the end of humanity.
Learning, if like all other natural phenomena,
does not happen naturally,
one is really learning garbage.
Learning, like the way it is done,
is non-sensical.
It is learning to be "knowledgeable".
It is not learning to be knowledge itself.
Learning is a never-ending process because it fuels another
monstrously addictive tendency of a human. (visited next)
A human will learn all his life,
but not arrive at what he craves to know.
Enough said.
"to think"
Humans think and think and think.
Do they not like thinking?
"learning" and "trying" stick around because
both supply fuel to this ginormous human-essence-sucker - thought.
You will say "what do you mean?".
And I will have no option but to take apart your question.
You do not understand what I mean because you think too much.
Other than the many "downstream" perils of thinking
that you have taken for "normal" in your life,
the most crucial one is this...
Thinking obfuscates your desire to understand.
Note I did not say "ability to understand",
which is something trivial.
I said desire to understand.
Yes, there is a world of experience you happily sacrifice
when you worship your thoughts.
"better"
is A Penrose steps, albeit in real life.
Not that different from other words in his statement.
Almost all of what I have written already,
applies to "getting better" as well.
So I will keep this short...
More is not better
Better is not better
Perfect is not better
"better" is the problem
The problem that creates MORE problems
(Completing the circularity a human being stays stuck in)
The one commonality in all his words?
"Trying" , "learn", "to think", and "better"
are neverending processes.
Yes, It sounds benign, even useful on paper.
Who would want anything to end?
Because "end" sounds depressing on paper.
But look at the lives of all those
who get hijacked by this neverending-ness.
Not just at the ones who are celebrated.
And even the ones that are being celebrated,
are not wholeheartedly celebrating the life that they live.
Because not only does the celebration that they receive becomes mundane.
But they themselves never venture past the mundaneness and drudgery
that they take for "Aah.. that is life."
I do not know about you,
but a neverending process only sounds worthwhile to achieve
for a computer or a machine.
If a human never stops trying, learning, thinking, getting-better,
or "trying to learn how to think better"
until he actually stops,
when will he find peace?
when will his wife find peace?
when will his parents find peace?
when will his children stop "trying", "learning", and "thinking"?
when will his friends start admiring and respecting him for who he truly is?
And when will all his followers and worshippers understand
that life is not about any of those words!
Life is life. And it is passing away
one moment at a time.
Without trying.
Without learning.
Without thinking.
Without getting-better.
Thank you.