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by edejong 2401 days ago
No, the statement 'knowing a thing is almost always better than not knowing it', is balderdash.

An individuals knowledge is like a garden. It needs to be kept in order and it takes time to maintain. There is simply too much information being produced and a limited bandwidth to ingest this information. To select the right information is of the essence. Form a strategy of knowledge gathering. For example, one can decide to pick a topic that is not well known, in order to be a valuable amateur expert on that topic. But, just ingesting information without any rhyme or reason is a recipe for disaster.

1 comments

So, because you found one, rather extreme case, where blindly consuming disparate pieces of information is maybe harmful you're arguing the entire premise is flawed?

The statement is not "at the sacrifice of all else, memorize everything possible."

If you take any advice to a logical extreme it will likely become bad advice. Maybe you should try to consider things from different angles before you capriciously write them off.

Personally I am of the opinion that one should always consider the knowledge one gathers similarly to the food one eats and the friends one keeps. One burger doesn’t make you fat, nor does one bad friend make you criminal. But we’d better make conscious decisions lest we’ll be a 200kg drug dealing gang member who believes the earth is flat.
Seems like you're agreeing with me in a very abrasive way.
No, I am not in agreement. We should always be careful with the information we gather and keep a focus. That’s different from: more information is always better.

I am not a native speaker. Where did you thought I was abrasive?