The biggest problem we face today is not of survival. We are all going to survive somehow but how to make our lives better, that’s the question. Am I surviving miserably? Am I properly utilizing the time that was given to me? These are the questions that keep people up at night. You study, you do specialization and you are still far from knowing everything there is to know about a field. There is an abundance of information in today’s world. You can learn something about everything from the internet but you cannot learn everything about something. Because there is never enough time.
But you look up any old thinker and you will see their various accomplishments. They excelled at both science and arts. They painted, solved mathematical problems, discovered chemicals, invented social and behavioral sciences and more. Then you get to think that maybe it’s our fault for not doing enough. You make up excuses for millennials but the fear of not living up to your potential never goes away.
After discussing the matter with a friend, I have reached a sort of conclusion that has brought me some comfort. A couple of centuries ago the world was just beginning to discover things. We weren’t even sure if the Earth revolved around the Sun or the Sun and all other planets revolved around the Earth. The world needed discoveries and inventions and that’s where our thinkers came in. They were people like us but they didn’t have information at their disposal the way we do, and that’s why they went out to seek knowledge and made all those discoveries.
Our world today knows so much. So it’s okay if we don’t know it all. And just because we are not making discoveries in every field doesn’t mean we are not leading good lives. Maybe it’s time for us to stop being so hard on ourselves. And if you want to know whether you are using your time rightly then start comparing what you are today to what you were yesterday and vow to be better tomorrow than today. Many discoveries have been made in all the sciences, maybe it’s time we started discovering ourselves.