anything goes with emma chamberlain - is ignorance bliss? 

Episode Date: December 15, 2022

i would consider myself to be an observer of people-i'm constantly analyzing people and trying to understand what makes them tick. it helps me understand myself and the world better. something i've noticed about people is that they tend to fall into one of three categories: 1) people who are just aloof to the world around them and kind of clueless 2) people who are extremely aware of the world around them and very knowledgeable and 3) people who are somewhere in the middle. i've always wondered which extreme is a happier life: having a ton of knowledge and being super aware of the world around you? or being sort of ignorant to the world around you and just being free from complex issues? what's a happier life? that's what we're going to discuss today.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello. I would consider myself to be a people observer. I'm constantly observing people, analyzing them, trying to understand them. What makes them tick? Why do they behave the way that they do, etc? I find it really fascinating for one, but also I think it helps me understand myself better. I don't know, overall, I'm just a big fan of observing people, of analyzing people, of figuring people out. But something I've noticed about people is that they tend to fall into one of three categories.

Category number one, people who are just aloof to the world around them. Kind of clueless. Category number two, People who are just aloof to the world around them, kind of clueless. Category number two, people who are extremely aware of the world around them. They have a lot of knowledge about a lot of different things, and they're extremely aware of what's happening in the world, what's going on around them, and even what's going on in their own brain.

And then you have category number three, which is people who are somewhere in the middle. I'm not sure if you can decide what category you fall into. I think you might be born into it just by nature. I don't know. I mean, maybe you could be naturally inclined to be in one category, but then force yourself to be in a different one. But I think most of it is just who we are as people were born that way. But I've always wondered which extreme was a happier life, living with loads of knowledge,

being hyper aware of the world, or being a little bit more clueless, a little bit more ignorant, maybe, about the world around you, and just being free from complex issues, focusing on simpler things instead. What's a happier life? I think that question for me stems from the age old saying, ignorance is bliss, which basically means

not having knowledge about things and just sort of being clueless is a pleasant feeling. You know, like the less you know, the happier you'll be. That's kind of what ignorance is bliss says. And I would consider myself to be somebody who falls somewhere in the middle. I'd consider myself to be in category three, where I'm not completely clueless. You know, I have some knowledge and wisdom about things, I guess. And I'm not completely aloof to the world around me, but I'm also not all

knowing. You know, I'm not the most knowledgeable person I know. There are a lot of people that know a lot more about a lot of different things than me. So I would consider myself to be somewhere in the middle. I would consider myself to be somewhere in the middle. I'm clueless about some shit, and I'm knowledgeable about some shit. I'm not really either of the extremes. But because I'm kind of in the middle, it's kind of up to me to decide which direction I want to lean into.

Do I want to just enjoy being clueless about stuff or do I want to push myself to gain more knowledge about a lot of different things? Because I'm in the middle so I can go either way. And so today we're going to be talking about the pros and cons of ignorance and of knowledge. Because I think it's interesting. When I think of people who fall more into the clueless category, I notice that in some ways they seem really happy, but in other ways they seem really unhappy. And I notice that in the other category as well, people who have a lot of knowledge, they're really happy in some ways and they're really unhappy in other ways.

All right, so first let's start out with the pros and cons of ignorance and cluelessness. Number one, I've noticed that ignorant people tend to have a lot less anxiety. They don't know much about complex issues, like terrible things that are happening in the world, or all of the different ways that you can get hurt or that you can die or whatever, they don't know about those things. So they have a lot less to worry about. These people are a lot more concerned about simple things,

things that are current and minor. For example, what dress am I gonna to wear to prom or what am I going to have for dinner tonight or did I charge my iPad last night because I really need my iPad for school today. That's kind of the majority of their thoughts, you know, lightweight, minor, inconsequential thoughts. Like that takes up 99% of their mind. And they tend to just run more on autopilot, you know?

They're not getting all caught up in an existential crisis because they're not even thinking about what happens after you die. That's just not in the forefront of their mind. So they're just living a much simpler sort of life and existence. I also think that those who are more ignorant appreciate the small things in life more. Because the more information and knowledge that you have, the larger the world is inside of your mind. Every time you learn something new,

the universe that exists inside of your mind grows. And so if you have less knowledge about things, then the world inside of your mind is smaller. And when you have a smaller universe inside of your brain, you focus more on the few things that are in there. You know what I'm saying? And maybe you'll appreciate them even more. You might appreciate the small things more if you tend to be somebody who's more ignorant. Now, I want to clarify too that there's no right way to live your life or to look at life. And I'm not saying that people who tend to be more clueless or more ignorant are dumb or stupid or bad.

Like, there's no right way to be. It just is. I don't think there's anything wrong or negative about it. I mean, there is some things, but there is also some negative things about being extremely knowledgeable in life. So, I don't want this to come off as like, I'm not using the word clueless or ignorant

as an insult or a negative thing. It's just, it just is the way that it is. People are just this way, and there's nothing wrong with it. So anyway, now although there are some positive sides to living a more ignorant life, there are also some negative sides to it. I think life can lack depth and substance at times without knowledge. I think the more you know, the more color and dimension the world around you has, a simpler life may lack some purpose in meaning. For example, let's say you became obsessed with the idea of traveling the world. And so you started doing research on all of these other cultures

and you started reading books and watching movies and learning more about other cultures and their history and all of this stuff, right? All of this knowledge that you have about other cultures will allow you to appreciate them more when you get to go visit. So for example, let's say you learned a lot about France and then you went and you visited France. You might notice little things when you're walking around that have some sort of cool history to them and that might be so much more magical for you. For example, let's say you see a landmark, like a sculpture or something in the middle of a park, that you read about in a book.

Seeing that sculpture is gonna be so much more powerful and interesting and exciting for you, because you have knowledge about that sculpture and about France in general. Whereas if you're somebody who's a little bit more clueless and you just don't really care to look into it, you just wanna go to France and have fun and enjoy whatever comes your way, you know?

That sculpture might not even have caught your eye and it wouldn't have been as cool to you. It wouldn't have even sparked a thought. I think that that's a good example of how life can sometimes lack depth and substance without knowledge. Because knowledge of things allows you to notice more things that mean something to you out in the world.

Another thing is conversations may also lack depth and substance if you don't have a lot of knowledge, because unless you know about things, you can't really have a deep conversation with somebody, a really analytical, challenging conversation without knowledge of things because, you know, a conversation is back and forth. One person provides their opinion or some sort of knowledge that they have and then, you know, the other person does the same. And if you don't have knowledge about something, then you can't really add to a conversation necessarily. And so someone who may lean more on the clueless ignorant side might not have as much to add to conversations that are beyond surface level.

And I think that that's kind of a shame because I think that conversations that have a lot of substance in depth are so crucial for growing as a person and developing your own view of the world. So not being able to participate in those types of conversations is a huge loss. When I was younger, I remember feeling frustrated

because I would see adults having conversations about serious topics and I wish that I understood what they were talking about. Part of me was kind of happy that I didn you know, having conversations about serious topics. And I wish that I understood what they were talking about. Part of me was kind of happy that I didn't know because I was like, this seems like a heated, uncomfortable conversation, you know, like, I'm kind of happy to not be involved in that shit. Like, it doesn't seem that fun. But at the same time, I do feel left out and I wonder if the passion that they're using in their voices is a negative thing or if it's just a passionate thing. I don't know. And the only way I could know is if I understood what the fuck they were talking about. And now that I'm older, I realize, well, more serious, deep conversations can be uncomfortable and can cause arguments.

And it can be a negative thing at times, but it can also be a really, really positive thing. So, I don't know, not experiencing those types of conversations is easier and avoids potential argument or upset, but at the same time, it prevents the potential upsides of having a conversation like that as well, like growing as a person, having an epiphany about something, becoming closer with the person you're having the conversation with through some level of vulnerability or a realization that you both had. I don't know.

More ignorant people are just so much less likely to argue. I know I kind of already mentioned that before, but knowledge kind of creates passion. When you know about things, you naturally are going to become passionate about some of those things, whether it's religion or politics or art or whatever it might be, whatever you have knowledge about, you know, you're going to become passionate about those things. And passion creates argument sometimes. When you're super educated on something and you know everything about it and you care about it and somebody else maybe has a different opinion on that topic,

you might get angry if you know a lot about it because it feels personal to you because you have a library of knowledge on that topic in your head that you believe in. So if somebody comes and fights against that, then you're going to feel like it's a personal attack and you're going to want to argue. But if you don't really know that much about a topic, then you're not going to get passionate about it and you're not going to argue about it. If you don't know anything about religion and you don't practice a religion yourself, then you're not going to argue with anyone else about religion because you don't have a personal bias, a personal passion in that area.

If you don't pay attention to politics, then you're not going to argue with other people about politics because you don't know about it. So you don't even know what to argue about. You see what I'm saying? So I mean, it's interesting. Like, the other thing is, people who are more clueless, I think get more blindsided by difficult times when chaos happens in someone's life.

And they're used to just living in a sort of autopilot that's much more surface level, unless emotionally charged, a difficult time can sort of come as a shock a lot more for these types of people. Because they're used to just living a simple day-to-day life that lacks any type of extreme. When you don't have a lot of knowledge about stuff and you're just sort of enjoying your day-to-day in a more simple way, you just experience much less emotional extremes on a consistent basis.

If you have less knowledge, you're gonna have less arguments because you don't really have as much to argue about. You're less worried about bad things that could happen because they're not on the forefront of your mind because you're not really thinking about them or you might not even be aware of them, the bad things that could happen in life.

You're just overall less anxious, argumentative, et cetera. You're just more even neutral. But then when a difficult time comes up, you might not know how to handle it at all, because you don't have practice dealing with it in your daily life. Somebody who has more knowledge about things might constantly be thinking about difficult

things. And so they're exercising that part of their brain, constantly thinking about all the things that could go wrong, having anxiety about those things. And so then when things come up for those people who have maybe more knowledge, they've already thought about how they would deal with a difficult time if it were to come up because they already knew that that difficult time was possible to happen,

because they had knowledge of it. You see what I mean? Alright, now let's talk about the pros and cons of having knowledge. There are a lot of pros, I would say, but there are also a lot of cons. I've noticed that there are a lot more pros and cons of knowledge than there are of ignorance. I think the more knowledge you have, the easier time you'll have problem solving. Because in life we're constantly being hit with problems all the time that we need to solve.

And there are two ways to solve a problem. You can work through it and truly solve the problem. Or you can run away from it and just avoid the problem. And you never solve it, but I guess it's not really a problem anymore because you ran away from it. just avoid the problem. And you never solve it, but I guess it's not really a problem anymore because you ran away from it. Now it's gone. I would argue the better way to solve a problem is to work through it. But in order to work through it, you have to work, you know, and having knowledge and wisdom about the world and how it works and whatever. That can help you solve problems because you have this library of knowledge in your brain that you can pull

from to just give yourself advice on how to problem solve. If you don't have a lot of knowledge or wisdom, then you have no library of pull from or your library is very small. And so when a problem arises, you might be more tempted to just run away from that problem instead of solving it because you don't even know where to begin. Also, the more knowledge you have, the more you have to talk about. And talking to people and having things to talk about is an incredibly powerful thing, because it makes social interactions so much easier. I've had moments in my life when I've just kind of been more in a state where I was just in autopilot and I was just kind of more clueless to the world around me and

and There were great things about those moments in my life and there were easy things about those moments in my life But there were also hard times with that and one of them was I would have less to talk about in conversation And I'd find myself feeling stumped like I don't really know what to talk about You know because I'm just kind of checked out of reality right now. So I don't really have anything to add to a conversation. I don't really have anything to provide that's valuable. And that can be sort of a shitty feeling because, you know, having conversations with people is such a vital part of our lives. We need to communicate with people and have conversations with people.

It can be a scary and uncomfortable feeling when you're like, wait, I don't have anything to talk about at all right now. We've already done all the surface level shit. Now would be time to talk about something deeper, but I don't really have anything to offer. In those moments can be really uncomfortable. Some people maybe don't mind, and they're like, well, I have nothing left to say. I'm walking away and I'm going to go talk to someone else, you know, or where I'm going to hang up the phone and call someone else, whatever. But for me personally, I feel weird when I don't have the capacity to have deep conversations. When I'm not in a mental state where I can do that, I feel weird.

And it can be kind of upsetting for me personally. And I can feel sort of isolated and self-conscious that I'm not interesting or adding anything to a conversation. The other thing about the mental library that you keep of knowledge is that it is satisfying to build that. So when you say read a book or watch a documentary or have a conversation with somebody who knows more about something than you do. And you're able to add new information in facts and blah, blah, blah. To your mental library, you feel satisfied about that. I don't care who you are. That's a satisfying feeling. There's something exciting about learning about something kind of complicated

and then getting to a place where you understand it and then adding it to your library it just it feels good it's satisfying and it's something that you know that you're going to be able to use later and you get excited to sort of share that with other people. And also less things feel like a curve ball when they come up you are less likely to be shocked by the unfortunate things that happen in life sometimes because due to your library of knowledge and your brain, you know, you've heard of it all. You've read books about every shitty situation that can happen to a person. You've watched documentaries about every shitty situation that can happen to a person. You've watched the news enough. You know what type of shitty stuff can come true. You know, like, because you have all this knowledge about the shitty things that can happen

in the world, if something happens to you, it's less of a curveball. You're not as shocked by it because you have knowledge about all the possible things that could go wrong. So although you may still struggle through a difficult time, in a weird way, you saw it coming more. But there are also some negative sides to having a lot of knowledge in wisdom. I think the biggest one is that not all knowledge is good. It's all fun and games to learn about history or cool science or people's success stories

or how to run a business. It might be cool to know about all that stuff, but what about the sad stuff, the scary stuff, the upsetting stuff, falling deep into an upsetting topic can be really upsetting. Let's say you start learning about times in history when awful things happened and you start doing a lot of research on this, you start really trying to learn more about these times.

As important as it is to know about these types of things and as powerful as this knowledge can be and as even life altering this type of knowledge can be, it can also make you feel depressed. It can be upsetting. And that can be challenging. Sometimes we learn about things that are upsetting or awful or terrible. And we're able to take them kind of with a grain of salt in a way for our own well-being so that we don't let it affect us too deeply and make us feel too upset to a point where we're not functioning,

you know. But sometimes you might learn about something or acquire all this knowledge about something that sort of puts you into a depressive state that prevents you from being productive. And that's not a good thing either. You know, if you fall too deep into an upsetting topic, you can find yourself becoming depressed because you are too emotionally invested in this upsetting knowledge. And that can be a bad thing. And kind of bouncing off of that, having a lot of knowledge can also cause you to sort

of experience an existential crisis. The more that you know, the less mystery that there is in the world. I think mystery is kind of comforting because I think it's easy to just accept something as being a mystery and to not dig too deep into it. Like there's something comforting in a way for some people that it's a mystery that we don't know what happens after we die. And we don't know what the point of life is. You know, there's something comforting

about the fact that that's mysterious. For some people who are maybe more on the clueless side of things, but people who are more knowledgeable and crave to understand and learn about things might be dissatisfied with that and feel like I can't comprehend that. Like, I don't like that there's no answer to this, and it can cause an existential crisis. I think when you're somebody who's more inclined to have a lot of knowledge and wisdom, you tend to think too deeply about things

because your brain is trained to pick things apart over the course of your life. You've gotten into a routine and a habit of wanting to understand and learn about everything and understand everything. And that can be a really good thing at times, but it can also be a really bad thing at times, because you can sort of become obsessed with understanding everything. And if you can't understand something or there's no answer to something, that can be upsetting and confusing and

make someone who is more knowledgeable, feel out of control in a way. I think people who have a lot of knowledge also might have a hard time enjoying the small things in life sometimes. Small moments like high school graduation or prom or someone doing something nice to you at the grocery store, like letting you get in front of them in line. I don't know because their knowledge of the bigger picture of the world makes small moments seem even smaller. As I mentioned earlier, the more knowledge you have, the larger the universe is in your mind, right? And so a small but magical moment happens to somebody who has a lot of knowledge. There's a chance that that might end up feeling really small to them, because they have greater expectations for themselves and for the world.

Whereas somebody who has less knowledge is more clueless, has a smaller universe inside of their mind. And so things that are small but magical might feel larger because the universe inside of their brain is just smaller. So small things to them seem bigger. I think the moral of the story is, is that there are pros and cons to both ways of living life. I've kind of experienced both sides of this in my life. There have been times when I have been kind of clueless. I

would say in high school, I was pretty clueless. I was really naive about the world and what was going on around me. I was very focused on my life as an individual. I was much more focused on the day-to-day life of myself. I wasn't really thinking about anyone else. Now that I'm a little bit older, I have become more interested in learning about different things. And I will say, there's a lot of great things about it. I have much more meaningful conversations with people. I feel satisfied when I feel like my brain is growing

and whatever, but at the same time, I've noticed that I have a lot more anxiety about a lot of things. I'm a lot more scared about a lot of things. I'm a lot more scared of the world in some ways. And so I sort of miss the time of my life when I was more focused about what dress I was going to wear to homecoming or what time the fucking football game was. And whether or not my friends were going to meet up before it, go get pretzels at the mall and eliminate it. You know what I'm saying? Like I miss that time of my life when I was maybe in autopilot

and just clueless and ignorant. Like I do think ignorance was bliss at that time. But I was also missing out on some incredible moments as well. Like really incredible conversations and the satisfying feeling of learning more things and a deeper understanding of the world around me which in some ways make me feel more connected to the world around me. I don't know but even now I sort of teeter back and forth

although I would say I lean more towards wanting to have knowledge and wisdom about things and existing in that kind of space. I still have times now when I sort of clock out and have a phase of my life where I'm just more clueless and sort of blind to what's going on around me. I'm just kind of in my own world. And I'm not really working on developing my brain

or like finding a deeper understanding of anything. I'm just kind of floating along. I have times where I experience both. And I think that what I've realized is both ways of living your life come with pros and cons. And I think that there's no happier way to live your life. Maybe the ideal situation is to experience a little bit of both and Sort of teeter back and forth depending on what you're craving, you know sometimes I'm craving Cluelessness in a way and then sometimes I'm craving Knowledge, but I'm in a unique position because as an individual I fall somewhere in the middle

Some people can't because they don't fall in the middle. they can't really choose. It just is what it is. I know some people that they can't turn off the side of their brain that just needs to know about everything and wants to learn about everything. And they wish that they could. They wish that they could because it's exhausting at times to know a lot of stuff. It's exhausting. But I also know some people who are maybe more clueless and maybe more ignorant most of the time. And part of them sort of wishes that they had a desire to learn more about the world and stuff.

But they also are satisfied being in that place because that's just where they are naturally. And I also know some people that are maybe more ignorant or clueless who don't even necessarily know or care that that's how they function. They just, it just is what it is for them. And they don't know any,

they don't know life any other way. So it's just fine. Now, I don't know what the conclusion is of all this. I just think it's interesting. So let me know what you think. What category do you fall into? Are you somebody who's more knowledgeable or somebody who's more ignorant? Do you enjoy what category you're in? Do you wish you were in a different category? Or are you somewhere in the middle? Are you in that middle category where you can kind of teeter back and forth? If you're one of those people, which one do you prefer?

Just share all of your thoughts with me. My Instagram is at anything goes in podcast and Twitter is at AG podcast, tweet me DM me. Let me know what you think. Is ignorance bliss? Yes or no? Or is ignorance sometimes bliss? Let me know. Anyway, that's all I have for today. Thank you for listening. Thank you for hanging out. I always appreciate it. And have fun. We have fun. Come on, we have fun.

Check out my coffee company, Chamberlain Coffee. If you'd like to pick up some coffee, or matcha, or chai, or hot chocolate, or cute accessories for your favorite beverages, check it out. Use code AG15 for a little discount if you are interested. And that is all I have for today.

I will talk to you next week. And until then, just keep being awesome. All right, love you. Ili, oh, I hate when people say Ili to me. I actually get insulted. When somebody's like say Ili to me. I actually get insulted. When somebody's like, Ili, I'm like, you don't fucking love me. Because that is so rude.

Like saying Ili to me, it's so rude. Like that is a deal breaker for me. I will not talk to you if you say Ili to me. Say I love you or don't say anything. Okay, bye. Oh, I love you. Okay, bye. Say I love you or don't say anything.

Okay, bye. Oh, I love you. Okay, bye.