A couple of months ago I bought a book by Ryan Holiday entitled “Ego is the Enemy”. I knew this book from some content creators on Instagram.
This book is about how the ego can damage us from various points of view. One of them is how ego can undermine the way we learn something.
Epictetus said, “it’s impossible to learn that what we think we already know”.
The problem with being a know-it-all is that it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy. You think you know everything and it becomes impossible to learn more. In fact, the smartest people are humble. They are students, they focus on what they don’t know.
This is what makes Socrates so wise to the Stoics. Socrates is aware, at least they say of his own ignorance. What is so profoundly brilliant about Socrates is his ability to ask questions. He is always asking the smartest people in Athens. He is trying to get to the truth rather than thinking he already knows it.
So ego is the enemy because it freezes you in place. It prevents you from learning. A humble person focuses on all there is left to learn, and that is why they continue to learn and get better and smarter.
Hope we learn something.
This article is part of the 30 Day Writing Challenge. I’ll challenge myself to write whatever comes to mind.