Are you wise, dear reader?

[draconica]

If you are, I'm not going to challenge that claim, it wouldn't be wise.

What makes people wise? We know that wisdom is not intelligence. That can be simulated by a machine. Artificial wisdom, though, now that ain't gonna happen, is it?

We know that old people are wise, at least that's what old people tell us. We know children are wise—well, sometimes. We know our friend who gave us an unexpected good advice was wise, because what they said didn't come from good logic, or private knowledge, or special experience; rather, it came out of nowhere. If intuition is the gut feeling, wisdom must be the gut knowing.

Why is it important to think about wisdom? Because it has the property of transcending our daily experience. Daily experience can be a bit like a maze full of mirrors. You sort of think you know where you're going, but you're also likely to fail to notice you're going in circles. The reality is constructed (don't believe in that? I will make a post about this later), and skillful construction of your own reality depends a lot on your ability to notice what's not in your construction. What doesn't fit in. What does fit, but hasn't been internalized. What has been internalized, but hasn't been put in practice. Sure, intelligence can do all of that, too, but at the cost of straining your imagination and creativity, and wisdom is just sort of there, and you reach for it and there you go.

How does one become wise? By non-attaching. By not believing you know everything. By removing filters and obstacles, by letting your gut think out loud. You get wiser as you let that guy do the job, because it's like a muscle, you let it work and it gets better. That's how you any quality, actually: practice it.

But how do I know all this?

You know, this is just what people tend to say on this topic, I'm not an expert…

Comments

Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

>> How does one become wise? <<

Methods I have found effective include but are not limited to:

* Read everything in sight. Especially things that disagree with each other.

* Travel. Different ecosystems are particularly helpful, but different subcultures in your own town will also teach you new things.

* Explore different cultures, including diverse languages. They help you see the world in new ways.

* Make mistakes. If you're not making any mistakes, you're not learning, you're coasting.

* Get a list of philosophies and ethical systems. Pick a current issue, run it through 10 or so systems, and determine how each would resolve it. Repeat with more current events. Which systems seem better at what topics? Which seem to give the best solutions overall?

* Work on remembering things from one life to another. It saves so much time, and helps prevent you being blindsided by dumb shit your current culture is doing.

Wisdom isn't just knowledge or intelligence, but it is easier to be wise when you are also smart and educated. Much of wisdom is about honing your instincts through knowledge and experience. You learn not to make the same mistakes again, and you can use pattern sense to find new problems to avoid also.

Re: Thoughts

[draconica]

it's a blessing to receive your comments