Why Being Skeptical Will Make You See Life Sharply
Certainty can cripple your life
Certainty can cripple your wisdom.
“Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.” — Voltaire
A young man caught a small bird and held it behind his back. He then asked: “Master, is the bird I hold in my hands alive or dead?
He thought this was a grand opportunity to play a trick on the old man.
If the master answered “dead,” the young man was planning to set the bird free. If the master answered “alive,” he would simply wring its neck.
The master spoke: “The answer is in your hands.”
Certainty is a trap— it makes us feel in control, even if we have to deceive others.
The young man didn’t care about the master’s answer — he wanted to be in control. The young man was willing to kill a bird to be right.
We want life to go according to our plans. We wish to know what will happen next. However, life is out of everyone’s control. Your cravings for certainty can derail you from experiencing life as is.
The certainty mindset —wanting to have ‘the’ t…
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Demystifying Culture to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.