Some of the highest forms of wisdom is wisdom of that which persists

That which persists — it just works

That which persists — it has actually proven itself

There’s enough brilliant ideas that don’t work

And there’s enough brilliant ideas which seem to work — only to fail spectacularly

That which actually works, not just 10 years later, but 50 years later — that is something special

That which actually works, not just 100 years later, but maybe 1000 years later — that is something truly special

 

The old man — he had seen that which actually persists — therefore that which actually works

He himself had persisted, didn’t he?

 

He should know wisdom you can’t conceive of

Your intelligence can’t touch that wisdom.

This wisdom has to be seen — and seen over dozens of years.

 

And indeed intelligence is what differentiates the two of you

Because the brain degenerates

It doesn’t necessarily have to degenerate — but likely it will

We get too attached to our intelligence

Which means that we’re too obsessed with it

That we overvalue it

But it also means that when it’s no longer useful — we undervalue how much we lost

 

The old man gets old and slow — and he doesn’t realise he no longer can keep up

He thinks his insights are valuable

They aren’t. He’s too slow to comprehend what is going on around him. His insights are garbage

I said he had wisdom — I didn’t say he had insights

 

Finally, even that wisdom can only be considered wisdom in specific conditions

If your life challenges are significantly different to their’s life challenges — than their wisdom does not apply to you

This is another problem with modern “old wise man”

The world has changed

It actually has changed. It changed like it never had in history

Their wisdom is not the wisdom you need

 

Finally, you yourself shall one day be that old man, hopefully

By then, hopefully, you will have compounded the wealth of your wisdom

You have hopefully planted seeds of wisdom and let truth blossom from the seeds of truth. If you planted delusion — than you only get madness.

And you had hopefully worked on your physical and mental fitness, because time definitely works against it

Hopefully your mind is still fit

But if it’s not — wisdom is all you have

If you even have so much

 

The lesson is:

-Never underestimate the wisdom of that which persisted — that which actually had proven itself.

-Never underestimate the raw power of intelligence at acquiring immediate insights — which is very different to wisdom

-Understand the context, and when which applies