As a Gen Z-er, I couldn’t fathom the idea of having to go to the library, gather as many books as I could on a particular topic, with the sole purpose of trying to find the answer to a simple question…
Whether that answer is for my personal use or perhaps a supporting detail for a school research paper. And yes, I am aware that this was the reality for every single generation before me.
Information is valuable, even today. Nevertheless, since there were more barriers to acquiring information back then, it was more valued. Let’s say you wanted to learn a business skill. The majority of people had two options:
Books
Mentorship
The thing is, with books, there is only so much information one can absorb at any given moment which at the very least, gives your mind time to process the information you have just taken in. With mentorship, the knowledge came through actual wisdom from someone who had already achieved success in the area that you were endeavoring in.
Too Much Information: Analysis Paralysis
We are beyond blessed to be able to have access to any information we may ever need at our fingertips.
The problem is that we are now bombarded with information at all times. Every single person is a guru. From the moment you open up YouTube, you will watch one video on how to do something, and the very next video you watch completely contradicts that idea. Your brain isn’t able to process these concepts at its infant stage because it’s been given contradicting viewpoints.
This overload of information causes what is called Analysis Paralysis – the feeling of being unable to decide on something due to overthinking a problem or idea.
Analysis paralysis is what lies on the opposite end of making hasty decisions without thinking anything through. The idea is to find the balance somewhere in the middle. However, in the context of this article, analysis paralysis is caused by having too many opinions, ideas, and beliefs that conflict with each other due to an excess of information.
The Practice of Unlearning
Lack of confidence is a result of not taking action on the things that you want to achieve. Confidence can always be regained, but it is lost any time you know you are supposed to do something and don’t do it.
I am not suggesting that we learn ONLY from our mistakes or through trial and error. I am all for acquiring specific knowledge needed to learn a skill. What I am suggesting, however, is that we must develop a filter for the information we consume. We can’t just accept every single thing we absorb, otherwise, it will lead to information overload and eventually analysis paralysis, as previously mentioned.
In other words, unlearning is essentially proper discernment, being able to admit when we are wrong, and update our beliefs accordingly. In some cases, there is no right or wrong answer, which is where we must discern whether or not a particular idea or piece of information fits within our scope of ideas and principles toward attaining our desired result/achievement.
To unlearn also means we need to be able to question the validity of the sources of information we consume. With all the courses available on every single topic nowadays, you can imagine how many people are masters of creating courses and capitalize on creating courses and not the actual topic itself.
The best way I can illustrate it is like a sculpture. Acquiring knowledge is like adding clay to a sculpture. The carving/chiseling process of sculpting is what gives the sculpture its actual figure.
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This Post is republished on Medium.
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Photo credit: iStock
