Facts are made up. Gravity existed before we gave it a name. I don’t need to know the word “gravity” to know I shouldn’t take a long walk over a short cliff.
Facts don’t matter. The creator of Dilbert made this point in his book Win Bigly. This book is largely about the 2016 election when Scott predicted the Trump win.
Facts don’t matter. Feelings do. I suppose everyone knows smoking is bad for you. But people still smoke. Smoking makes them feel better and this overpowers the—bad for you—part. This concept can be applied to most vices. Alcohol, junk food, gambling, infidelity. These are bad activities, but that doesn’t stop people from doing them. Feelings overpower.
At the time of this writing, I have been fasting for 24 hours. It would be great to eat right now. But I am going to hold off. We need to eat. If we don’t eat we will die. It is not quite understood how long we can go without food. Some go days. Some people can’t go an hour. Eating is largely a feeling.
We are feeling animals. The same as other animals. Our dis-advantage is our ability to create stories. Gravity is a story. Physics is a story. Science and math is a story. We did just fine before we told these stories. We lived and we died. We didn’t have any need for facts. And we still don’t. Learning facts is largely a waste of time. A better use of time is learning about feelings.
Nature and reality works the same now as it did 50,000 years ago. Things in the sky looked the same back then as it does now. Plants grew now as they did. And the seasons changed now as they did.
But something has changed. We are smarter. Right? I mean we have planes, motorized carriages, and the internet. And we have facts. Glorious facts.
What would we do without facts? How can we understand things without facts?
Facts don’t matter because everything is set in motion. Plant a seed and it will grow. Humans are made in a similar way. We don’t need to understand human reproduction to make babies.
We evolved without facts. We made it here without facts. I can’t walk to the edge of a cliff without that tingling sensation in my legs and stomach. That is my DNA telling me not to jump.
The point of this post is to suggest you let go what you hold dear. Let go of facts. And then sit outside and look at nature. Listen. Observe. You are looking at our past. Our Present. Our Future. And don’t worry. Nature knows what to do.
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