You will literally never be able to read all the books you'd want to, and your knowledge will always be close to nothing

>you will literally never be able to read all the books you'd want to, and your knowledge will always be close to nothing

The sector of human understanding you can explore and grasp within a lifetime is tiny. You'd have to limit yourself to a minuscule part of a discipline, like, for example, the thoughts of a single philosopher, and study it like an autist for your whole life to gain a true insight into it. Even if you read a book a day, that would only be 365 books year. 365 times, say, 65 is less than 24 000 books, and I doubt anyone can realistically read that amount in their lifetime. Even if someone did, there would still be a 100 000 worthwhile books the person hasn't read, and his understanding of the world and human thought will always be quite small, objectively speaking.

And me? On average, I read maybe a book a week. With this rate, I can't necessarily even finish a total of 4000 books before I'm very old and maybe dead. Is less than 4000 books enough to truly understand the world? I fear not. I already know more about philosophy, psychology and theology than most people, and yet I know almost nothing. I'm afraid that I will never be able to flee the horrible, agonising feeling of mediocrity and ignorance.

Do you know this feel?

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god youre a boring twat

Learn to live with it, autismo.

I'm 30 years old and I've watched over 3000 full-length movies so far and I know of at least 2000 more I want to see. While I watch those in the next ~10 years I'll probably discover 1000 more and I'll be in my 50s by then. Not even including the new movies that will be made during those years. So yeah...

yeah it does bother me, i comfort myself by thinking that everything I know is bullshit regardless so it doesn't matter

You haven't read well to still be at the quarters of such understanding as yours, counting what you read by the books and not by the systematic relation of metaphors and ideas. For example having read 10 genre fantasy books you could be well as have read hundreds. It's also vain to despair about such a thing as it is absurd to think one man could grasp within himself knowledge of millions throughout history. Why not rejoice at life and the attempt to understand it seeing such wealth?

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You can't help that, so why worry about it? Learn as much you're able to.

you hav to try tho

Well, since it is a literature board, using books seemed like a natural meter. But you're right, of course the content of the books and whether you understand it or not is more important than the mere volume. You could also expand my original thought to any field life, like did with movies.

I can't help it, it just bothers me. I dread the feeling of inadequate mediocrity, and this goes for other fields of life, too. Like I said, I know more about philosophy than most people do, but what of it, when many of my peers and teachers know so much more? I'm quite strong for a man my size, but not strong enough to compete and win. Whenever I become good at something, it just means that I will be never be good enough.

Of course.

>I dread the feeling of inadequate mediocrity
>I can't help it
If you haven't learned how to not give a shit you must either be learning jack all from the books you read or you aren't reading good books.

>Whenever I become good at something, it just means that I will be never be good enough.
>I have to be the best in the world at everything I want
You have to be 18 to be here bud.

>I can't help it, it just bothers me. I dread the feeling of inadequate mediocrity, and this goes for other fields of life, too.
who fucking cares
I bet you can read more than 12 pages an hour

>it's vain to worry about the limits of the human condition.
Probably one of the least vain concerns, seriously.

That is why I have been trying to make the most money I can, so that I can fund a project where I'm able to upload my mind into a computer and then I will become virtually immortal, processing books and studies in seconds, learning everything there is to learn. I will be near omnipotent but will not interfere in human development

Are you kidding? I am glad that I will never ever have to worry about running out of new things to learn and read. You are looking at it the completely wrong way.

I get that feeling when I walk through the library.

There's a book called "Too Much to Know" you'd like it.

You will get tired of reading eventually and stop caring

YOUR LIFE HAS A LIMIT but knowledge has none. If you use what is limited to pursue what has no limit, you will be in danger. If you understand this and still strive for knowledge, you will be in danger for certain! If you do good, stay away from fame. If you do evil, stay away from punishments. Follow the middle; go by what is constant, and you can stay in one piece, keep yourself alive, look after your parents, and live out your years.

terebess.hu/english/chuangtzu.html#3

Only this I have found, that God made man right, and he hath entangled himself with an infinity of questions. Who is as the wise man? and who hath known the resolution of the word?

...

Vanity of vanities, said Ecclesiastes, and all things are vanity. And whereas Ecclesiastes was very wise, he taught the people, and declared the things that he had done: and seeking out, he set forth many parables. He sought profitable words, and wrote words most right, and full of truth.

The words of the wise are as goads, and as nails deeply fastened in, which by the counsel of masters are given from one shepherd. More than these, my son, require not. Of making many books there is no end: and much study is an affliction of the flesh. Let us all hear together the conclusion of the discourse. Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is all man: And all things that are done, God will bring into judgment for every error, whether it be good or evil.

BY not exalting the talented you will cause the people to cease from rivalry and contention.
By not prizing goods hard to get, you will cause the people to cease from robbing and stealing.
By not displaying what is desirable, you will cause the people's hearts to remain undisturbed.

Therefore, the Sage's way of governing begins by

Emptying the heart of desires,
Filling the belly with food,
Weakening the ambitions,
Toughening the bones.

In this way he will cause the people to remain without knowledge and without desire, and prevent the knowing ones from any ado.
Practice Non-Ado, and everything will be in order.

-

DROP wisdom, abandon cleverness,
And the people will be benefited a hundredfold.

Drop humanity, abandon justice,
And the people will return to their natural affections.

Drop shrewdness, abandon sharpness,
And robbers and thieves will cease to be.

These three are the criss-cross of Tao,
And are not sufficient in themselves.
Therefore, they should be subordinated
To a Higher principle:
See the Simple and embrace the Primal,
Diminish the self and curb the desires!

-

To realize that our knowledge is ignorance,
This is a noble insight.
To regard our ignorance as knowledge,
This is mental sickness.

Only when we are sick of our sickness
Shall we cease to be sick.
The Sage is not sick, being sick of sickness;
This is the secret of health.

-

AH, for a small country with a small population!
Though there are highly efficient mechanical
contrivances, the people have no use for them. Let them
mind death and refrain from migrating to distant places.
Boats and carriages, weapons and armour there may still
be, but there are no occasions for using or displaying
them. Let the people revert to communication by
knotting cords. See to it that they are contented with
their food, pleased with their clothing, satisfied with
their houses, and inured to their simple ways of living.
Though there may be another country in the
neighbourhood so close that they are within sight of
each other and the crowing of cocks and barking of dogs
in one place can be heard in the other, yet there is no
traffic between them, and throughout their lives the two
peoples have nothing to do with each other.

terebess.hu/english/tao/wu.html

Imagine an insane old lady who spends her days on her knees crawling around her room counting how many hairs there are on the floor carpet. She is acquiring a knowledge that nobody in the world has - how many hairs there are on this particular carpet - but is it useful knowledge? Similarly, what colour socks did you wear 2nd April last year? How many clouds are floating over Paris at this moment? What were Julius Caesar's first words, and what did he enjoy eating for breakfast?
Almost all knowledge is useless knowledge. In fact, in order to be wise and get through life, you barely need to know anything. Most people neglect knowledge of these few essential things however and go after knowledge of useless things, which is why the world is populated by clever fools.

If people didn't care about counting fibers then I wouldn't have my Egyptian silk 1000-thread count bedsheets. Suck a dick pseud

The older I get, the more I am getting comfortable with being mediocre. Even a couple of years ago, I dreamed of reaching the highest level of being that I could - of sipping from all diciplines of knowledge, and enjoying every kind of art - of touching the world, and leaving a mark - but even now, before I have even turned 23, I fear I am becoming complacent. I am not reaching towards greatness anymore. I do not read as before, instead spending my days in a haze, not doing anything worthwhile.

I am afraid.

>reading for knowledge and not for fun

Adolescence is wanting the extraordinary out of yourself and out of life. Midlife crisis is realising that this cannot be attained, and giving in to disappointment and bitterness. Maturity is appreciating the extraordinary in the ordinary, which is a kind of second youth that never exhausts itself.

Read a lot of secondary literature and pretend you understand the major thinkers.

>implying the most important knowledge exists outside yourself

I'm aware that most people are mostly happy, and appreciate the little things in their lives. I can see it in my parents, when they laugh at something on tv, or my friends, when they are in love. There is a thought, though, that I can not get rid of. It is that all these people, claiming to appreciate the little things in life, finding extraordinary beauty and meaning in the mundane, are really only fooling themselves to better deal with the fact that their lives are bad. That the only way to deal with failure and sadness is to trick oneself to think "It's all good". I don't really want that. I don't want live an average life, being complacent and accepting, just "being".

I want to know more, and do more, and be more than most. But it's hard, trying to be your ideal self.

Your ideal self should be your natural self, not some phantom. It is human nature to enjoy the simple things of life. That is not a bad life but the definition of living well. It is not human nature to exalt itself to pretend godhood, which is the source of so many calamities in the world.

>Your ideal self should be your natural self, not some phantom.
Hahaha, I suppose that's where you and I differ. I hate my natural self. My natural self is a twisted mess. In fact, my hatred of myself is my source of motivation in life - every evil impulse, every vain desire, motivates me to fight harder. I actually only started to work out because I can not allow my body to fall apart and die on me before I have done enough in life to earn death.

>It is human nature to enjoy the simple things of life. That is not a bad life but the definition of living well.
I guess I'm a little depressed. There are few things I find truly enjoyable. There are only things I need to do in order to justify being alive.

But I appreciate your outlook on life, user. I think you should keep it.

>I can know everything if I just trust that I have all the answers
The devil really is a liar

don't worry user deep down you know that you are the chosen one who is destined to live forever until the end of ever.