I read a long time back in a Bertrand Russell’s book 'The Conquest of Happiness', He who mirrors the world in his existence is the happiest and the most fulfilled. It is a very profound statement. It teaches one the importance of knowledge and the happiness attained in such a conquest.
The book by Russell also had valuable lessons on the importance of hobbies, the importance of boredom i.e. repetition in life. I was young and malleable when I first read that book and the book had a profound impact on me. It was the first and the last self-help book that I have bothered to read. I have never trudged towards the Self-Help section in a book store after that day and it is very comforting when I see the book by Russell in the Philosophy section of a book store that I frequent. It was later revealed to me by a friend that Russell was mostly unhappy with his life. I have never bothered to verify the correctness of this piece of information, because I wanted to believe Russell had discovered some secrets that lead one to fulfillment. And so I did not let this new piece of information put brakes on my conquest of knowledge across various domains.
I also find it pitiable that works of today don’t preach. My grandfather, who is an educator and a writer once told me – ‘In my days, teaching was preaching. Today, it is just diverting the students towards information and knowledge. In this age of mass manufactured teaching supplements the teacher is reduced to a traffic-wala who diverts the mass of vehicles that approach to their desired destinations.’ Bertrand Russell was a teacher of my grandfather’s time. I sometimes wish that there ought be more books around that preach.
And I therefore trusting Russell started my romance with Ideas. I, at first, did not take Russell so seriously. But the more I read about things the more I enjoyed the world around. With time it has become an obsession of sorts. Take for instance, having a cup of coffee at a coffee shop. I go and sit, I realize that the chairs around me were
mass-manufactured probably in a
lean manufacturing model and the trio of 2 men and a woman sitting next to me are engaged in a classical game called
"Let you and him Fight", I realize that I am a victim of
price differentiation when I order the coffee with the Irish cream etc. I mean if I did not know what a lean-manufacturing model is, did not know what Transactional Analysis is or if I was unaware of price differentiation from economics my coffee would have been plain boring. But now since I am a student of economics, have read "Games People Play" and happen to be a keen observer of numbers its a different story altogether.
Do you guys feel the same?
Do you guys think that knowledge and ideas are empowering and at the same time enhance the world around you?
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