Webbready

There is very little that I hate about myself more than my own ignorance.

I have many flaws and aspects of myself that I despise, as do most people, but most of those can be considered a mixed blessing. They make a person distinct even as they make a person less than perfect. However, my lack of knowledge frustrates me to no end, not because of the lack itself, but because it cannot be easily remedied.

For instance, one can read thousands upon thousands of books about Pittsburgh. One can possess artifacts of the city, and research it for a lifetime. However, despite all this, if the person has not lived in Pittsburgh, he or she will only attain a detached knowledge that will make great rhetoric but will have little practical use.

Likewise, someone can live in Pittsburgh and know its streets and alleys to the very brick of a building’s frame. The person can instantly recognize a view from anywhere in the city. Yet this person can be as ignorant of the city’s history as someone who has never lived here, and all the practical knowledge this person lives in a vaccuum.

What I seek is a knowledge that is beyond these two scenarios. I do not want merely a synthesis of the analytical and the palpable realms of knowledge, although that would be a start. I would like to know more than intuitively and through facts and figures. I want to know something that I can apply, teach, and from which I improve myself as an automatic consequence.

Take this blog, for instance. There is a wealth of information out there that I could read until my brain became saturated with information. Yet without the intimate knowledge necessary to tweak and edit, it is nothing more than useless words. As a result, errors remain in both layout and content.

Without knowledge, there can be no skill. Without skill there can be no progress. Without progress, what is there?

Ignorance is not bliss to someone with a drop of knowledge. It’s unending torture.