Recently I was taking with a friend of mine who said, "I am too fascinated by people and their individuality so I don't want to learn Psychology as it will tell me all about people and things I think are unique will become boring and common." 🤯

Let me come to it from another direction, I am an Atheist, and when I give scientific and probabilistic solutions to the "miracle of god" type of situation, people don't want to hear me a bit. I think I know the reason, They think knowing science will make them explain all phenomenon and that wont be fascinating and miraculous as it previously was. I feel, they are wrong about it.

What is knowledge?

Knowledge in my definition is an understanding of an event/thing/problem that gives you power to deduce your way towards the explanation.

Cambridge dictionary describes it this way, "understanding of or information about a subject that you get by experience or study, either known by one person or by people generally"

Which doesn't seem to be too far off from what I feel about it.

Can knowledge be bad?

Yes, It can be and let me tell you how. Knowing the day you'll die is not a very fascinating thing to know. That may be an extreme but even Placebos don't work if you tell the patient that the thing they are eating is a placebo. Placebo is based on belief and any knowledge that breaks the believe will also ruin the good side of the belief.

Okay, we have settled that knowledge can be bad. But...

Is knowledge good?

Yeah! And mostly it is. Take driving a car for example. When you drive you can get from point A to point B. Good enough. But if you know about how an engine, a carburetor and the gear box work, your fascination towards driving will increase 5 folds. You will realize what a marvel you are driving and how well all the parts are actually working together.

Take neurology for example. I did not know women secrete pheromones that can either change her menstrual cycle periods to be in phase or out of phase depending on other girls they live in close proximity with. It was amazing for me to know that and now I have a different perspective of thinking about it, one that is super fascinated by the complex interactions and all the things that just happen without even consciously thinking about it.

Conclusion

There are 2 ways to deal with life, one is like a participant and the second one is like an observer or a thinker. Both has its parts and importance in life. Some like one more than the other and it also varies in situation. Knowledge is fascinating when you look like an observer. In fact, without knowledge becoming an observer is sometimes impossible.

Knowledge is helpful and gives you an extra gist of the entire situation when you think of it from the lens of an observer.

When it comes to a participant, knowledge doesn't play a big role. You can go along with you life without knowing that Women perfume contains Men Sweat derivatives (Androgen).

But the beauty is, you don't have to chose being a participant or an observer. You can become either of them as needed. The truth is, many a times you can not become an observer without the knowledge. But pretty much always you can be a participant with the knowledge.

Knowledge can often times open up many new worlds for you that you wouldn't have even realized you lived in.