It matters not what your ability is

What matters is if you understand the extent of your ability, your competence, your knowledge

 

“I know I know nothing”

“All I want to know where I’m going to die so I’ll never go there”

“To know what you know and what you do not know, that is true knowledge”

blabla

area of expertise, circle of competence, staying in one’s lane, ne supra crepidam

the virtue of modesty, the condemnation of arrogance, blabla

 

You might have heard of those ideas,

We all have heard those ideas but being familiar with a concept does not equal living and breathing the truth

Almost no one truly gets it

 

You don’t just speak more humbly, you don’t just make a pretence of doubt or reservation about your beliefs and knowledge, you don’t just give fake respect to those you disagree with

All that is superficial and achieves FUCK ALL

 

NOR do you merely limit yourself to your circle of competence,

Because LIFE IS NOT your fucking narrow circle of competence

Life is making decisions under uncertainty

And life is GROWING your circle of competence, endlessly expanding, elevating

And that can only be done under uncertainty and through experimentation and failure

 

Pretence of humbleness is utterly devastating — because it convinces you, and other fools like you — that you are indeed epistemically humble, and adept at acting under opacity.

And when you cultivate the appearance — this same appearance shelters you from the truth, separates you from the truth, forever

You know ABSOLUTELY nothing about what you know or don’t know — you just know how to fake the humbleness so characteristic of true wisdom

 

The ideal of “circle of competence” is likewise treacherous

It at least betrays partial understanding

But this again beguiles you, lulls you into false believe that you have this PROBLEM OF UNKNOWN handled

You don’t, you fool

Again: life is NOT your little “circle of competence”.

And when you’re forced to act outside of your circle of competence, outside your comfort zone — you’re as prone to self-delusion as everyone else

 

Therefore platitudes won’t save you

Words never saved nobody.

Words only have meaning in how they relate to real, tangible action

And “knowledge” itself is nothing but words,

The true meaning of knowing is not “knowing”. It’s not about STORING knowledge. It’s about LIVING the truth

 

And INDEED only in LIVING and TAKING RISKS do you learn to KNOW your ability

It’s not a “philosophy”. It’s not a fucking aphorism. Those will avail you nothing

Only REAL WORLD ACTION, REAL WORLD RISKS — will teach you just how much you DO know

Just how confident to be, or cautious

Just when to bet the house, and when to run for your life

 

And it is then that you learn that you ability doesn’t matter,

Doesn’t NEARLY matter as much as your self-awareness, your meta-awareness of your own abilities

It doesn’t matter how “great” you are. When you shoot for the moon and you miss — you fall back to earth and crush like a bug on the ground and die instantly

It doesn’t matter how “great” you are. When you overshoot yourself — you FAIL all the same

A failure is just a failure.

 

A FAILURE IS JUST A FAILURE

There is no “better” failure or worse failure.

A failure is just a failure

UNLESS you predicted that failure to happen and be just a stepping stone — then a failure is JUST A FAILURE. It means you LOST. It means you lost your money. It means you have been SET BACK.

Stop pretending POST FACTUM that your failure was somehow something more than just a failure. That it was a “lesson”. Or that it’s “part of the process”,

You can only say that “failures will be lessons and stepping stones” BEFORE the fucking failure. By ACCOUNTING for the UNCERTAINTY you’re dealing BEFORE you act.

That’s the only time that failure is more than a failure.

Otherwise failure is just a failure. If you DIDN’T EXPECT to fail — then your failure is just a FAILURE. It means you got the ADVERSE outcome. It means you got NOT what you intended. THAT is a failure.

 

All you had to do was realise that your ability in that context is not so omnipotent to deal with all the variables compounding.

You don’t learn it from the book. You don’t learn how UNCERTAIN EXACTLY something is. You don’t calculate a subjective probability. You don’t prepare for it,

Instead you ACT in real life — and observe the results.

You put money where your mouth is — and reap what you sow.

Doesn’t matter what you ability is. Either it matches the challenge or not. You bet on it matching or not. Then you reap what you sow.

Doesn’t matter how “great” you are — if you weren’t fit for the challenge — you lose money all the same. Just like those “lesser” than you, with their “lesser” challenges.

 

Stop altogether wittering about:

-“ability”

-confidence

-humility vs arrogance

-“expertise”

Go out into the real world

Make bets there

Execute

And let your actions speak

And let your actions be the only testament of your confidence or humility, of your ability and your prudence