If you follow Circumspecte on Twitter and Facebook – and you really should if you aren’t – you’ve probably seen a couple of posts related to Brainpickings. There’s a wealth of (potentially life-changing) information and insights that are clearly and cleverly written – quite simply, we’re smitten!
Here’s a video from Brainpickings founder Maria Popova which highlights some issues we’ve raised on here and addresses one very crucial question for our times: Is information access erasing our aptitude for learning (and wisdom)?
There’s a full transcript via Brainpickings, but here are some snippets which stood out to us:
“We live in a world awash with information, but we seem to face a growing scarcity of wisdom. And what’s worse, we confuse the two. We believe that having access to more information produces more knowledge, which results in more wisdom. But, if anything, the opposite is true — more and more information without the proper context and interpretation only muddles our understanding of the world rather than enriching it. This barrage of readily available information has also created an environment where one of the worst social sins is to appear uninformed.
“Ours is a culture where it’s enormously embarrassing not to have an opinion on something, and in order to seem informed, we form our so-called opinions hastily, based on fragmentary bits of information and superficial impressions rather than true understanding.”
A great storyteller — whether a journalist or editor or filmmaker or curator — helps people figure out not only what matters in the world, but also why it matters…A great story, then, is not about providing information, though it can certainly inform — a great story invites an expansion of understanding, a self-transcendence.”
Thoughts? Share in the comment section below.
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Written by Jemila Abdulai
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Jemila Abdulai is the creative director, editor and founder of the award-winning website Circumspecte.com. A media and international development professional and economist by training, she combines her business, communications and project management expertise with her strong passion for Africa. Besides writing and reading, she enjoys travel, global cuisine, movies, and good design.