The Three Most Dangerous Words

Albert Einstein said “The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing.”

As we grow older in life we tend to grow comfortable with our knowledge and our routines. We begin to glaze over and block out the familiar things that dwell in our environment - our family, friends, pets, house plants....

How many times have you driven home from work to arrive at your door and not even remember driving home? As we grow older we begin to live on auto-pilot in ever increasing amounts of time.

Medical science has recently discovered that our optic nerve shuts down periodically throughout the day leaving us completely blind - for a total of about 45 minutes cumulatively every 24 hours. This happens when the data our eyes are taking in "glitch" out - the brain shuts down the optic nerve for a portion of a second then "reboots" it. We don't notice it as the brain fills in the gaps with data from memory and gets everything back on line within a fraction of a second.

However!!!

It happens enough that we are blind for a total of 45 minutes out of every 24 hours.

We are "tuned out" even more than that in a day. We develop rituals and routines that detract from our awareness - we repeat gestures and phrases without thinking- we have a complete compendium of mindless sayings such as - I'm sorry, excuse me, please, thank you, have a nice day, how are you - all uttered without any semblance of consciousness.

We have perfected the habit of shut down and forgotten how to data mine without google.

Instead of the endless pursuit of knowledge - we have instead developed a magic so dark that it has the capability to destroy our cognitive ability completely.

This dark magic is cast through the utterance of three words in a certain sequence.

So powerful are these three single syllable words that when combined together they have caused thousands and thousands of people to give up on life completely. They are known as "The Three Most Dangerous Words In The English Language".

I urge caution when reading them - and please - I beg of you - never never say them aloud!

Now - If you feel you are ready - here are the three most dangerous words:



I KNOW THAT.



Uttering these words will prevent you from absorbing information, learning anything new, growing, connecting, communicating and so on and so on - their destructive power is almost limitless.

There is an antidote however. Following Newtonian physics - every action has an equal and opposite reaction - there is a simple way that we can reclaim our right to curiosity. Reclaim our birthright to knowledge and understanding!!

It is called - Wonder.

It takes some practice to remind ourselves how it works - so I have added an exercise below that I do whenever I feel like the walls of my skull have grown thick with moss -

You need to use objects that are familiar to you- and interact with people that are unfamiliar to you.

1. Pick up an object, concept that is very familiar to you.
2. Approach someone you don't know or hardly know and ask them what they think about it.
Be sure to explain to them you really have no idea how it works - or functions etc...
3. Have them explain to you in detail what they think it is and how it works. Encourage them to
"help" you understand it. Pay close attention to everything they say - be sure to shut out all
previous knowledge.
4. When they have finished "helping" you - thank them for enlightening you and re-examine the
object on your own with this new found knowledge.

It is interesting what happens when something familiar to us receives someone else' unbiased perspective. I always discover many things I never realized even existed or were possible. It is no longer the same object or concept at all - but it is completely renewed!

This is great training for reclaiming our sense of wonder! Learning new things about the familiar - seeing them as unfamiliar again. Rediscovering everything and everyone! So go on! Mine some data and have a really amazing day!