the lost man chronicles
how to and why not (humans in action).44

Much more important than trivial facts is that kind of knowledge which cumulates into wisdom, understanding and intuition.

The former is the who, what, where and when; whereas the latter fall in-to how and why, both of which are never absolute answers. For just as the greatest scientists have long known, nothing is (absolute).

Certainly, there are laws and patterns, but ultimately they are amenable to the limits of human needs, whims and purviews. They are malleable and bent by the guiding angle of our perspective. Everything changes depending on our position—the altitude or the attitude that forms the disposition which make wisdom, understanding and intuition so personal, the idiosyncratic power and extent of which depend on who wields them.

Moreover, he, who, what, where and when tend to be the static nouns that merely describe or define a past. Whereas, she, how and why all prospectively keep things alive, moving, inspired and dynamic.

Together, this trio empowers those who are curious enough to always be in the process of seeking the answers, the end of which presents the awesome potential of an undecided future, of fruitful discovery, of application, and—humans in action.

*

And one day a boy said to Richard, "see that bird? What kind of bird is that?"

I said, "I haven't the slightest idea what kind of bird it is."

He says, "it's a brown-throated thrush. Your father doesn't teach you anything!"

But it was the opposite. He had already taught me: "See that bird?" he says. "It's a Spencer's warbler." (I knew he didn't know the real name.) "Well, in Italian, it's a Chutto Lapittida. In Portuguese, it’s a Bom da Peida. In Chinese, is a Chung-long-tah, and in Japanese, it’s a Katano Tekeda. You can know the name of the bird in all the languages of the world, but when you're finished, you'll know absolutely nothing whatever about the bird. You'll only know about humans in different places and what they call the bird. So let's look at the bird and see what its doing—that's what counts.

~ Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman, James Gleick






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