/lit/ - Literature

>>13719648
I'm barely into my twenties and the realization that I know absolutely nothing has been very difficult. Does it actually get worse?

>>13719648
30 here, I noticed becoming really mature in thought after age 25. Which usually means that I know what I know and I know what I don't know much more accurately now

I hate those happy looking nuprotestant christians with their clean cut look. look how white that guy's teeth are. no one's teeth should look like that. that isn't normal

>>13719664
Based

just turned 30. getting dumber for sure.

I'm 30 and it hit me that you should stick to reading stuff that actually matters. That's why I stopped consuming any news and read mostly religious and philosophical texts.

>>13719675
>That's why I stopped consuming any news and go on 4chan instead.

>>13719675
I'm >>13719662 and have noticed the same, I pretty much disregard a lot of stuff as useless or trivial, including some literature and philosophy too (but not most of it of course)

>>13719648
I'm "only" 28 and I'm getting dumber by the day.

>>13719648
I am over fifty, and realise that I am much wiser than I was thirty years ago, and expect to become that much wiser if I survive the coming race war to live another thirty years.

>>13719648
If you don't exercise or maintain your health, your mind gets blunter. It loses the sharpness of youth.

>>13719648
It's the opposite, I realize how right I was, and how stupid it is to doubt yourself.
Yet once doubt takes a foothold, it's hard as fuck to get rid of.
And it's what separate high and low class.

>>13719648
Socrates was right. In my 20s I thought science and transhumanism could save us. Now I regard science to be a form of philosophical contemplation, and philosophical contemplation to be inferior to religious practice. I went from scientism all the way to faith.

For some it's the whole point, others feel like they are on muted strings past 40.

>>13719648
32. For me It's ups and downs. The responsabilities of family and carreer helped put everything In perspective, and constant responsabilities keep me focused and my depression away.
So on one hand I feel like while I don't have time for the intellectual pursuit i followed once, I at least learned enought to get by succesfully.
However I feel old, out of shape at least mentally -physically I'm fine- and like that famous "depression" was also My best ally, and that I sacrificed it for normiedom. I can't write for shit, I Lost interest in the things I loved, and more than "scared" by the perspective of knowing nothing, I regard it with a condescending "meh". Knowing everything won't pay the bills.
So Now I'm here, trying to recapitare the Golden age When my brain frizzled with fucking energy and ideas, even though most of this energy went towards self destruction.

I would rather commid sudoku than go on 4chan after my 20s. G*d you old farts are pathetic. Didn't even know there are people as pathetic as you

>>13719648
In a way I have the reverse effect. I realize my past self was more correct that it was aware, but also naive for not understand. "It only you knew how bad things really were."

Maybe I also feel a little slower, but that's just efficiency. It's not like how I'd imagine old people feel when their mind starts falling apart.

>>13719648 (OP) #
In a way I have the reverse effect. I realize my past self was more correct that it understood, but also naive for not understanding. "If only you knew how bad things really were."

Maybe I also feel a little slower, but that's just efficiency. It's not like how I'd imagine old people feel when their mind starts falling apart.

>>13720395
>spending the best days of your life on 4chan
When I was in my twenties I was out playing in bands, chasing skirt.

>>13720219
Where do you live? USA or Europe?

>>13720395
You're posting here along with us. kid.
Now go do your homework.

>>13720410
If skirt is not chasing you, why even try.
>playing band
cope
>>13720434
Don't have no homework, dad, it's summer.

>>13720442
So go play your "halo" or whatever son. I love You.

>>13720323
its a rite of passage, you either enter into faith or go further down the intellectualizing distortion

>>13719648
25 here. Realized I'm ignorant in the past few years. Perhaps not in relation to others around me, but by my own standards.
>>13719662
This guy gets it.

>>13719648
46.
You grow in knowledge and experience when you get older, but some are stubborn thinkers their wholes lives and twist what they learn to fit their mindset rather than learn. This is how we have stupid old people. They are the vain, rude and ideological sorts.

>>13719648
>hebrews 12:9-11
oddly enough, this passage was one of the readings at Mass last sunday, but that quote isn't even from it. also, in my opinion, people who claim to not know anything, truly don't know shit, ESPECIALLY if someone who's christian is saying it. yeah, yeah socrates said it, but that was BEFORE God revealed Himself to the world. God is truth and you can only now anything if you know it because of Him. the older i get, the more shocked i am at how little most people actually know. the people who are supposed to be in charge of things are udderly retarded. the more you study and learn, the more you realize this, and its fucking scary.
also fuck protestants

>>13720410
you think you're cool, but you're just a degenerate cumbrain. congratulations on wasting the most precious time you had on this earth. i'm sure the subpar pussy you got in exchange was well worth it in your mind.

Holy fuck
>this thread
I just posted about the feeling of getting dumber before looking the catalog and now seeing this post, I'm surprised, what a coincidence

>>13719648
Yes, a lot. Especially if you keep on learning and stay reflective. It’s humbling

>>13720395
There’s much more that you don’t even know.

>>13720814
Humbling is one of the words I wanted to use.
Humble and willing to keep learning new things as they come to you, agreed

>>13719675
>mostly religious and philosophical texts

geschwind syndrome?

"hyperreligiosity, characterized by increased, usually intense, religious feelings and philosophical interests"

>>13719648
36
Dumber but wiser, memory is getting pretty bad. I stopped valuing intelligence and knowledge so high

>>13720358
Source?

>>13719654
Yes. Especially if you keep reading.

>>13720801
he's probably still cooler than you'll ever be tho

29 and i'm more confident about what i want to devote my life into knowing and what's trivial, i actually dropped my phd recently and began researching into another topic with another director but without the scholarship money. I want to become a true dilettante.
I'm a sociologist and the new topic revolves around suicide.

>>13720805
You don't get dumber by yourself, it's your lifeworld what's getting dumber.

>>13720844
I never heard of this term and had to look it up. I'd say no since I was never diagnosed with epilepsy nor do I have much interest in writing and drawing.

>>13720928
no

>>13719648
I'm now in my forties and mostly forgot about philosophy, politics and such to just care about my wife and kids.
I tend my own garden.

>>13720970
>I tend my own garden.
you fuck your kids? you sick fuck.

Im 30 and i realized that in this ultra competitive world its not enough to go to school and then go to college to succeed.
You have to be groomed for a position since childhood based on your aptitudes.
So when i have children i will teach them arts if theyre good at art or programming and circuits if theyre good at math so they can grow up to be successful unlike me.
Its probably too late for me to become a master at a skill.
i think.

>>13720997
>Its probably too late for me to become a master at a skill.
it's not. Also, i can only feel pity for you and your children.

>>13720997
Everybody knows the projecting into your own kids only leads them to therapy, nothing more

i'm 23 and i'm realizing all the time how much of an inexperienced brainlet pleb i really am.

it's exciting and daunting. if we are always another degree of wrong how are we supposed to be confident in ourselves? are we supposed to accept we will fall short of the mark but present like we know we are right on anyway? in my experience being realistic and humble and undercutting all my confidence with due concession is not useful to my performance or ability to garner the respect of others.

should we just be hardheaded in the present and admit to faults once we are done?

>>13720844
>le "pathologize various behavioral traits I find threatening" man
Yikes.

>>13720983
no, edible plants and cute baby animals, mostly

>>13721023
21 here, same

>>13721023
One can be arrogant, ambitious and humble at the same time, there's no conflict there. Knowing your own capabilities doesn't have to undermine your performance but enhance it. Admiting faults just points at what you have to strenghten in yourself.

>>13720970
That sounds pretty sad. Sounds like you just gave up on discovering how you could change and become something radically different to what you are. That's, i think, the only reason to live. And you've gave up on it.
I hope you're at least 'happy'.

>>13721138
Not him, but I don't find his situation sad, that's life, that's our choices. I valuate my studies more than anything, but I'm just in my twenties, I cannot be sure what my goals will be in the future.
I think that's nice that he has a family to care, kids to love. Sometimes we are too academic and that's not what everyone life has to be.
I don't have the time now to extend what i need to say but i think Borges gets it:
(English translation by Alastair Reid)

The Just

A man who cultivates his garden, as Voltaire wished.
He who is grateful for the existence of music.
He who takes pleasure in tracing an etymology.
Two workmen playing, in a cafe in the South, a silent game of chess.
The potter, contemplating color and form.
The typographer who set this page well, though it may not please him.
A woman and man, who read the last tercets of a certain canto.
He who strokes a sleeping animal.
He who justifies, or wishes to, a wrong done him.
He who is grateful for the existence of Stevenson.
He who prefers others to be right.
These people, unaware, are saving the world.

>>13721138
>discovering how you could change and become something radically different to what you are
why the fuck would I do that?
>I hope you're at least 'happy'
I am.
Being the best husband and father I can makes me 'happy', as you put it.
But what is 'happiness' tho?
I am content, and plan to keep things that way, which is enough imho.

>>13721023
>if we are always another degree of wrong how are we supposed to be confident in ourselves?
by putting our faith into the Lord instead of our own wills. once you realize this, its like you've just enabled cheat codes. the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.

>>13721170

>>13721170
I like you.

>>13721176
shut the fuck up faggot

>>13721176
>fear the Lord!
>2019
Please fuck off with your silly shit.

I’m 3 hunna nigga

Is this the Oldfag General?
Will we all ride Harley-Davidsons and Ford Mustangs together? Drink Jack Daniels and listen to Guns'N'Roses? Just end it already. Getting old is suffering.

I am now old enough to have witnessed a Porg Buttplug™
Talk about terrifying

>>13721170
>He who justifies, or wishes to, a wrong done him.
>He who prefers others to be right.
I like the others but this seems heinously unvirile.

>>13721175
Don't listen to him, anon. You have it right.
One hellbent on keeping 'discovering themselves' and changing, will ultimately go nowhere. Not all change is good.
Others will accuse you of lacking an open mind, but an open mind easily turns into something akin to an unguarded fortress, in which anyone can pour any bullshit.
Godspeed and hug your kids today.

>>13721178
you like voltaire? you sick fuck.

>>13721261
El que justifica o quiere justificar un mal que la han hecho.
El que agradece que en la tierra haya Stevenson.
El que prefiere que los otros tengan razón.

That's poetry, not everything is literal, some are emotional states.
Justifying something done wrong to you is having the justice, knowledge and wisdom to see with other eyes, empathy. It's not judging by your first angry instinct, it's about having the knowledge that animals and humans are plural and deep.
Wanting others to be right is about wanting to learn from others, wanting to have good conversations and maybe transforming yourself in a better person.
That part of the poem is way more about the empathetic and healthy humble way of living of The Just. Have you read Plato's Republic?
Feel the poem more instead of trying to read it as prose, stop being yourself and be the poem, be the lyric self. Let yourself be The Just poem and the just (everyone that has the humbility, justice and empathy inside their beings)

Knowledge also can be vain, everything can be vain depending on how you deal with it. Some here in this board has the "knowledge vanity"

>>13721261
>unvirile
kek
and you sound underraged

>>13721330
Did you read...* (there's more gramatical errors, but hey, i think you can understand, i trust you)

>>13721261
>unvirile
kek
and you sound underaged

>>13721330
Empathy is overrated, fren. Too much of it can make you accept any deviancy, any evil, any wrong. It makes you timid. Empathy is not what this world needs. It needs action.
Don't you dare throw Plato at me. Fiery instincts > cool reason, any time. Dionysus > Apollo.

>>13721272
This thread is full of love!

>>13721178
>>13721170

>>13721170
Sure, but i know what i want my goals to be, now. I preffer 'El tiempo de Borges' he gets it there too. I don't know if there's a translation.
>>13721175
It's only my opinion. A stable calm life without change would mean death to me. I just think to know what i can think and forget what i think, to see what can become of me, to see how i can be someone else. I think this is urgent specially in our current times. I don't want happiness or comfort, i want interest. But that's just me.
That's why i find it sad.

>>13721359
He's definitely immature

>>13721375
>Empathy is not what this world needs. It needs action.
Can you be more wrong? I truly wonder...
Life is not a comic book or a video game, anon.
Nobody will save the world in spandex.

>>13721409
>the world needs empathy, not action

>>13721383
That's nice too, anon! It's nice to have all kind of people, just don't feel sorry for others just because they're not YOU

>>13721383
>I want interest
Like a baby craving for dangling keys.
You're still young, obviously.
I hope one day you'll find who you are.

>>13720970
I want to be where you are in life, how did you end up there?

>>13721422
If you want action, start by cleaning your fucking room lmao

>>13721433
Money.

>>13721433
When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.

>>13719648
Nah, I don't fall for that anymore. Haven't thought about it in ages. It's not a relevant question in my life. It's one of the dumbest things you can use in a conversation. If you have something meaningful to say then just say it. Mentioning such things to other people is rude.

I interpret the sentence "I know that I know nothing" like this.

"I know" this is me. I know the things that I've studied. I know that I want to know more. And if I'm wrong, I'm not going to run around telling people how wrong I was. etc.

"That I know nothing" this part, this part is for everyone else, so they can drop their guard and eventually accept what I'm telling them. We need to keep an open mind, right guys? Don't be trapped in an echo chamber. You need to broaden your horizon!

>>13721428
I just don't like the idea of living in that calm region in the eye of the stom.
>>13721430
>I hope one day you'll find who you are.
I'm an assemblage of countless things. Finding who one is is equivalent to trying to find the mirror that reveals ones true reflection.

>>13721491
>I'm an assemblage of countless things.
Then you're still all potential and no realization.

>>13720773
>the older i get, the more shocked i am at how little most people actually know. the people who are supposed to be in charge of things are udderly retarded
I basically disagree with everything he said however the greentext is spot on.
45, I don't feel like I'm more or less intelligent, but I mostly don't care about stuff anymore. not necessarily apathy, but you see trends repeating and you realize it's just gonna happen and getting wrapped up in it is a losing game.

>>13721517
Wisdom.

>>13721513
>Then you're still all potential and no realization.
Well, i am, as all things, virtual and actual simultaneously. You're confusing stability with closure and atomism. Everything is an assemblage of things, even more that which is stable as it requires a very intense work of other things in order to achieve and mantain that stability.

>>13719648
It's both. You grow wiser and gain perspective, but less able to imagine solutions.

>>13721564
>You're confusing stability with closure and atomism.
Why on earth would you make that assumption?
“No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he's not the same man.”

>>13721564
There is no 'stability'.
Only immanence.

>>13719648
Early thirties and feel like I'm getting smarter, but I'm recovering from an illness that plagued my twenties. I finally feel like I'm at the level I was around 20, maybe even better.

>>13720997
>You have to be groomed for a position since childhood based on your aptitudes.
To a certain extent, this is true, but usually for those that have established a family dynasty, i.e. the Kennedy and the Bush families.
Certain people are not allowed to fail, no matter what. They are in the right schools and civic organizations, they have long established connections to money and power. They are groomed their entire life for certain roles, and they will fill those roles.
I am not from one of those families. I was a goofy stoner kid in high school. I learned a skill in the military that I embraced, worked hard to excel at, and earned rewards from it. You can learn a skill at any age, if you want to. All you need is motivation.
I encouraged my kids to do what they were good at, whatever that was. It gave them confidence to go onto more challenging things and succeed at those things. They're on their own now, and are successful at their chosen professions.
No one knows everything. Only fool think that way. We all have areas of expertise, where we have mastered our field. Outside of that specialized knowledge base, we are morons, like the brain surgeon, who knows nothing about automobile mechanics, or can't figure out how to use a microwave.
Knowledge is relative to the subject at hand. Wisdom is relative to how many mistakes we've made in the past, and if we survived them.

>>13721176
As if warhammer 40k has any relevancy, other than to show the failure of religions, and demonstrate that the faithful have been mislead.
Never fear God, only love him (or her, as the case may be).

Mostly just a bittersweet understanding that there is just so much out there that i can't go through it all. I wish i could split myself into several beings to consume all i want then recombine and i can have all of the experiences and knowledge acquired when separated.

>>13721380
Is butterbeer as disgusting as it looks? It somehow looks fun anyways though, maybe it's just brendan.

>>13723171
>maybe it's just brendan.
being fun, of course

>>13719648
Young people want to maximize their happiness.
While mature people (whatever that means) want to reduce the possibilities of getting hurt.

>>13721023
use confidence as a tool, without identifying with it

being confident to the point of irrational arrogance is simply benefitial to everything in life. often, others feel the same as you and look for assurances and confidence in other people. provide it for them

When I was in my 20s, I thought I was only a simple, average person struggling in a world full of smart people. Then, after I hit 30, I realized that the vast majority of people in the world are fucking retarded, and even an average person can be hailed as a genius among them.

>>13720820
Like what?

>>13721409
>>13721396
I know soi is a stale meme, but
>being this soi
Imagine thinking that being a docile flowerchild is mature and good.
Go lift, smash some pussy and read Evola. If you're incapable of hate and violence, you don't love strongly enough.

Mid-20s. I'm really dumb and ignorant but my peers are even worse. How do i find peers i can look up to?

>>13719662
23-24 was the magic number for me

Well the real trouble is even if you realize you don't know anything if you actually act like it people won't like it and will get very annoyed with you. Within society it's really in your best interest to act like you know everything really

>>13720410
You could have done both, old man. You came too late to rawrxD I see.

Is he quoting Epistle to the Hebrews in that picture?
Because that's not what 12:9-11 refers to in that

>>13719648
In my case I enjoyed the revelation. It helped me realise that I did not have to prove anything and that I could just learn adn read for enjoyment.
Honestly, I think the conclusion of "I know nothing" can be taken differently depending on the person you are. It is purely subjective take, and hard one for a lot of people to come to.
I am still young however (I am 19). So the way I view this may change as I get older.

>>13720697
The irony of this post coming from you is

25 and idk if I should just become an expert in one thing or just try and be a jack of all trades. I know the former is better especially for pragmatic reasons and to be taken seriously, but idk man

>>13719648
Just turned thirty...I find that I'm certainly not more ignorant than I was in my twenties, but that I have a deeper understanding of what I DO know. To use a cliché: quality over quantity of ideas. It's a little disarming to see people 6-8 years younger than me expressing the same lazy opinions I expressed when I was their age, because it reminds me that intelligence and wisdom is a process rather than a discrete product.
This is why I'm so adamantly opposed to platforms and technologies that encourage living in an echo chamber. It's a more pervasive problem than one would think, because it will shape elections, art, and therefore, history. Please, people, destroy your echo chambers.

>>13720395
If you think about it, the last bastion of free speech on the internet should be reserved for 35+...people who actually have a reasonable grasp of how the world works. Like other anons said, you twentysomething fags should be out doing heroin and fucking.

>>13721239
Around 28-29, I largely stopped listening to the radio while driving. I am more defensive about systems/entities that attempt to suffocate one's mind during his waking hours. Turn off the music. Downsize one's materialistic instincts. Enjoy one's ability to think.
>>13721272
Not untrue. One ought to try to find a destination instead of always wandering.

>>13724261
I'm not a 'docile flowerchild', I'm a peaceful family guy knowing full well he could smash your shit anytime (because you're just an obnoxious know-it-all) but won't (except if you really ask for it) because that's how civilized people behave (and I don't have anything to prove).
"Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent."

>>13725568
>"Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent."
You said it's your last refuge tho m80. I guess it makes sense.

>>13721375
>Too much of it can make you accept any deviancy, any evil, any wrong.
Imho you've confused compassion and conscientiousness with empathy. Empathy is somewhat like being able to feel what someone feels/appreciate their perspective, it's more being able to see someone's journey and have some understanding of what it is to undertake that journey. Not the same thing by a long long way as accepting their actions or choices etc etc