The Less You Know, The Happier You’ll Be

I’ve been incredibly ignorant this past week – but it was by choice. 

See, I’ve never really been one to be too tuned in to world events (for reasons you’ll soon become aware of), but recently I somehow caught myself in the midst of it all. 

Within just a couple of hours, I saw an Australian reporter get shot on camera in the LA riots, Greta Thunberg and 11 other activists get ‘kidnapped’ in Israel, and Elon Musk and the President of the United States arguing like children on Twitter.

And to top it off, for some unknown reason, I had chosen to watch the final episode of the OJ Simpson documentary on Netflix that same morning. 

There’s a fine line between staying informed and feeling a sense of helplessness, and to say I felt powerless on that day was an understatement. 

I’ve always done my best to avoid the news and politics, and there’s always been a part of me that’s felt guilty for doing so.

But I’m starting to realise that knowing less isn’t always ignorance. 

Sometimes it’s a skill.

The Importance of Blocking Out The Noise

It’s becoming increasingly evident that ‘being informed’ these days is pretty much just a passive consumption of anxiety, and the internet has only exacerbated this. 

The best thing about the internet is that it connects us to every person, every event and every happening around the world in real time. 

The worst thing about the internet is that it connects us to every person, every event and every happening around the world in real time. 

I’m convinced that our ability to filter the information we see on these platforms directly decides the quality of our lives. 

On days when we’re unable to do this (like me on that dreadful Monday), we suffer. 

The sun may be shining, the skies may be blue, and something you read about someone who you’ve never met doing something that won’t affect you in a place you’ve never been to can completely ruin your day.

Filtering what you read or watch takes concerted effort. 

It takes skill to not click on and scroll past something that’s baiting you in. 

For a lot of people, this skill is severely underdeveloped. 

Yes, this is due to the inability for our brains to process a hugely unnatural amount of information at once, which is something it wasn’t built to do. 

But I think it’s also due to our false assumption that understanding everything that’s going on in the world will make our lives better. 

Understanding The World Isn’t All It’s Crack Up To Be

“If you try to understand too much, you’ll go mad.” Albert Camus 

We seem to have this insatiable want to understand the world, its people and its workings. 

As I wrote recently, we absolutely hate it when we don’t understand things, and I think this fact manifests itself in our constant need to stay informed. 

But maybe understanding these things isn’t as liberating as we think.

My girlfriend and I were chatting last week on the 7th anniversary of Anthony Bourdain’s death.

If knowledge and experience were a path to peace, Anthony Bourdain should’ve been one of the happiest men alive. 

But he wasn’t.

And perhaps that’s the paradox. 

The following is taken from something my girlfriend wrote when processing Bourdain’s death, something I couldn’t put into better words if I tried: 

“Maybe insight doesn’t always come with peace. Maybe the people who really get it – the beauty, the grit, the absurdity of it all – are the ones who struggle the most to be here.”

Bourdain travelled to every corner of the globe, immersing himself deeply in humanity’s beauty, pain and complexity. 

He didn’t just know the world, he felt it.

And for those who are empathetic, that’s a huge burden to carry. 

The Power of Not Knowing

“The pursuit of knowledge is, I think, mainly actuated by fear: fear of the unknown, of death, of defeat.”

Bertrand Russell

Sometimes I think we give the world too much credit – that the answers we seek will satisfy us and give us what we’re after.

Most of us really struggle to sit in a state of curiosity. 

That’s why we check our phones every five minutes and make 16 billion Google searches each day. 

We have this weird idea that knowing things *instantly* will make us happier.

But I really think the opposite is true. 

Eugène Ionesco says “it’s not the answer that enlightens, but the question.”

I think this can be related to the same feelings we experience when telling people about our goals. 

In my article ‘Stop Telling People Your Goals’, I wrote about the importance of keeping your plans to yourself. 

That’s because when you tell people your goals, your brain releases dopamine prematurely.

The praise and recognition from others gives you a huge dopamine hit which satisfies you and takes away the motivation you need to actually achieve the thing, because the brain’s reward system has been satiated. 

Telling people our goals is just like constantly chasing knowledge. 

We can’t wait to tell, just like we can’t wait to know. 

As soon as we tell someone our goals, we lose the motivation. 

As soon as we know the answer to our questions, we lose the mystery. 

When we lose the mystery, we lose the ability to come up with our own reasoning.

Answers close loops, and usually the answers are far less invigorating than something our own imagination can conjure.

Ignorance Is Bliss, But Sometimes It’s Hard To Choose

So what did I learn that fateful Monday?

Well, I already knew that people in power don’t care about the death of their fellow humans when it’s in a foreign world that they don’t understand.

I already knew that people in power can turn around, point their weapon and fire at a reporter whilst being filmed and nothing will be done about it.

And I already knew that prominent people can avoid being charged with a crime they clearly committed just because they have enough money to hire people that can find every loophole possible to avoid the charge. 

I already knew all of that. 

You already know all of that. 

So I was simply reminded of all that I already knew, and I allowed myself to be angered by it.

We all know how the world works by now, and for some reason we still allow ourselves to be shocked and angered by the things that happen. 

It’s normal for us to try and decipher and give reasons for the world’s happenings, but most of the time those reasons just upset us. 

There is so much power in not knowing.

The hard part is finding comfort in that fact.

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About the Author: Jack Waters is a former journalist turned creative thinker and writer, on a mission to become better every day and live a more fulfilling life.