ESSAYS
Mar 29, 2025
Drowning in the Sea of Knowledge
"We are in an age of both wisdom and foolishness"
"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times; it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness; it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity; it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness; it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair; we had everything before us, we had nothing before us..."
In A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens used these words to depict the great social upheavals and chaos that occurred 250 years ago. These words, describing a world standing on the brink of a major era like the French Revolution, interestingly reflect the contradictions of our time as well.
However, in one aspect, our current era diverges significantly from the period Dickens described. We are no longer in an age of both wisdom and foolishness—because the very concept of wisdom has lost its meaning. In the past, wisdom was shaped by deep thought, observation, and experience, whereas today, with easy access to information, wisdom has been replaced by superficiality.
Learning no longer means dedicating time to a subject and internalizing it; rather, it has come to mean quickly consuming information and moving on to the next. As we skim through life with 10-second videos, trapped in endless cycles, we deprive ourselves of experience. In a society driven by consumption, we are consuming information as quickly and in as great a quantity as possible. Instead of diving deep, we remain on the surface. Yet, we fail to realize that we drown not by diving deeper into the sea of information, but by staying on the surface.
Leonardo da Vinci carried the Mona Lisa with him for 14 years—just like the 40-book collection he always had by his side. His contributions to engineering, anatomy, medicine, architecture, physics, astronomy, and hydrodynamics did not come from a university degree or reading hundreds of books to attain genius status. Rather, they came from deeply studying, internalizing, and experiencing the knowledge he possessed.
Many of his works remained unfinished, and the notes (codices) he kept throughout his life were for his personal use. He never attended speed-reading courses, never published a book, never spent a fortune on motivational rituals, and never wrote articles for popular magazines. Most of the notes he wrote for himself never even made it to the present day. He had plunged so deep into the sea of knowledge that it was impossible to pull him—or what he knew—back to the surface.
Today, accessing information is easier than ever, yet understanding and deepening that knowledge is more difficult than ever. The abundance of information has not made it more valuable but has instead rendered it ordinary. Moreover, many people who merely skim the surface of knowledge now perceive themselves as wise. That is why calling this era "the age of both false wisdom and foolishness" would not be inaccurate.
